The Embassy of Pakistan in Washington has not had funds to pay salaries to its employees for at least four months reported The News on Saturday. The embassy spokesperson acknowledged delay in salaries, but said the staff was not facing salary-related issued currently.

Quoting sources, the report said at least five locally recruited contractual employees of the embassy faced delay or non-payment of salaries from August 2021.

They are being paid by the Pakistan Community Welfare (PCW) fund which is generated locally through services fees and then dispensed locally as well.

An affected staff member who had been working with the embassy for the past 10 years resigned in September owing to delay and non-payment of salaries.

The embassy hires the local employees on annual contract basis and they are paid an amount ranging between $2,000 to $2,500 per person per month.

These staffers — hired on contractual or permanent basis to assist activities in consular section that provides visa, passport, notarization and other consular services to the diaspora — don't receive perks and benefits, including healthcare, usually enjoyed by the Foreign Office employees.

Quoting sources the report stated the PCW fund collapsed last year due to divergence of fund amount to purchase ventilators and other medical equipment owing to the pandemic.

It added the embassy struggled to maintain the funds that eventually affected the salary payments and eventually "the embassy had to borrow money from other account heads to keep up with the monthly salaries for the staffers hired locally".

According to the report, the unpaid staffers wrote to the ambassador in October urging him to help sort the issue. The ambassador repeatedly raised the issue with the Foreign Office in Islamabad and managed to secure all salaries just last week.

Quoting the embassy spokesperson, the report said: "Currently there is no salary-related issue being faced by the Embassy staff."

He further said "while we always endeavour to disburse salaries to our staff on time, there are instances when due to longer than usual time in the processing of remittances from Pakistan and certain budgetary constraints, results in delay in disbursement of salaries to the staff."

This isn't the only Pakistan embassy to be in the news.

On Friday a tweet by the officials account of the Pakistan Embassy in Serbia read the officials have not been paid for the past three months.

Soon the response on the tweet went viral and Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson tweeted: "The Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia have been hacked." Messages being posted on these accounts were not from the Embassy of Pakistan in Serbia, it added.