ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had an angry exchange with officers of the federal government at the offices of the Ministry of Finance in Islamabad on Thursday, who were protesting against the decrease in their executive allowance.

The officers of the District Management Group (DMG) and the Officers Management Group (OMG) had gathered to ask Dar to withdraw his decision to slash the executive allowance from 150% to 100% of the basic pay scale (BPS) of government officers of grades 17-22.

Dar turned down the request while also giving the protesting officers an earful, saying that the allowance shouldn’t have been approved in the first place. The new directives has ordered 100% executive allowance across the board for BPS 17-22.

The allowance was increased to 150% via a notification issued on July 19th while Miftah Ismail was the finance minister. The allowance was admissible to all officers posted by the Establishment Division against sanctioned posts of section officers, de­­puty secretaries, joint secretaries, senior joint secretaries, additional secretaries, additional secretaries (in-charge), special secretaries and secretaries in the federal secretariat (ministries/divisions), PM Office and President’s Secretariat.

It was not admissible on non-cadre officers, including those from the Planning Department, who were also seeking an increase on similar lines. According to one official working in the federal government, officers of the Planning Department had been on a virtual ‘pen down’ strike for the last couple of weeks.

Protesting officers say that the allowance are being provided on the BPS 2017 payscale, even though the salaries are on the basis of the 2022 payscale. This could result in people losing out on a substantial amount, said one federal government employee who did not wish to be named.

Meanwhile, those from grades 1-16 say that they continue to get overlooked even though they are the most vulnerable to inflationary changes due to their low salary.

Currnetly, government employees under grade 17 receive two disparity allowances that amount to 40% of their basic pay.