The discrepancy in salaries of different government sections is giving rise to discontent in our government sector. On one hand rampant corruption has destroyed the prestige that this section had and on the other hand the low salaries are giving birth to more people turning to taking bribes, but this makes life difficult for an honest government officer. “Don’t we have equal rights to wages when we both do the same work and spend the same amount of time at the office in our respective departments?” was a question among many, I was asked by my junior clerk while he was showing me a job vacancy in a newspaper for the post of Junior Clerk BPS 7 at Sindh High Court.
When I caught the salary mentioned, I could sense what had infuriated my clerk and why, a Junior Clerk at BPS 7, at High Court, was offered Rs 34,000 per month, three times more than the salary a clerks draws in the public sector, other than the courts. With all respect I know that courts are not public sector and they are a separate organ of state, but their salaries too come from the tax payers of Pakistan. This was shocking for me, too, not because of the amount, which is a very high salary for a clerk, but because my own salary, even at Grade 17, under the Federal Government was approximately Rs 5000 less than that of a junior clerk at High Court. Appalling!
For a while I found myself deep in thought at such grave injustice and the severely flawed fiscal policy that I forgot about reading the other posts that were vacant. The first was for a driver, the salary for a driver, basic scale 4, at High Court was specified as Rs 31, 000. I would like to proudly tell my readers that I, being Election Officer BPS 17 at ECP, am drawing Rs 29, 600 per month and so will all those who qualify the tough CSS exam this year, or are inducted at Grade 17 into other provincial and federal departments. They are humbly advised in their own interest not to compare their salary with that of a driver or a clerk at any court of law.
I encouraged my junior clerk to apply for the post with a smile as I was his boss, and bosses should always be happy when a worker gets a better job offer, but deep in my heart I was gravely offended. What good was my parents struggle to put me through school and college, and then sitting for the tough CSS exams, if a driver and clerk drew more salary then me? When I shared this with my wife, she jokingly advised me to apply for the post of Junior Clerk B.S 7, perhaps to add five thousand more to my household budget. I am left with two options, either to go for the test of Junior Clerk unashamedly and quit the job at Grade 17 or make the most of the post I hold.
SAHITO ZAHEER,
Khairpur, December 17.