What Happened : Sindh is set to increase the salaries of government employees by 20 percent and set the minimum wage to Rs.25,000 in the province. The advisor to the provincial Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab announced that this was approved by the provincial Cabinet in the pre-budget session. Initially, the Sindh government promised a 15 percent increase compared to the 10 percent increase announced by the federal government, but it has now revised the decision on the suggestion of PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Within the budget outlaid by the Sindh government, there will be 171 new schemes for the health department and an enhanced development portfolio. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also announced that there would be no new tax levied in the upcoming budget.
#Sindh Cabinet has approved an increase of 20% in the salary of Govt employees & also set the minimum wage at 25,000 in the province. No new tax is being introduced by #SindhGovt #SindhBudget
— Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui (@murtazawahab1) June 15, 2021
Sindh cabinet approves 20% raise in salaries and minimum wages to 25000.
— Sharmila Sahibah faruqui S.I (@sharmilafaruqi) June 15, 2021
The Response : Adequate utilisation of funds remains to be a challenge for the Sindh government. Every year they fail to follow through with their hopeful claims regarding the budget. According to the finance department’s progress report, there is zero percent administration of funds in dozens of projects in the education, health, transport, minorities, and women development departments. Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh said that for the 13th consecutive year the ruling party in Sindh has not used 50 percent of its development budget. However, Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah rejected this assertions, claiming that the provincial government has given more to Karachi than any other party naming the Malir expressway, roads projects and treatment plans as examples.
Without completing a single transport scheme during the fiscal year 2018-19, the Sindh government dutifully repeated the same old transport projects that have been lingering on for several years as it announced the provincial budget for 2019-20 on Friday. https://t.co/hcCMFZlESh
— Talat Aslam (@titojourno) June 15, 2019
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