Guest Post by Awab Alvi (Teeth Maestro)
I have recently come across a few interesting facts regarding the pay scale and fringe benefits enjoyed by each member of our National Assembly (here).
It is more than you might expect. Rs. 32,000,000 per MNA per year; or Rs.8,54,40,000,000 5,47,20,000,000 for all 534 342 MNAs for the 5 year tenure. Democracy, even cosmetic democracy, does not come cheap!
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Pakistani MNA’s Salary and Government Perks
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Monthly Salary
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Rs. 120,000 to 200,000
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Expense for Constitution per month
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Rs.100,000
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Office expenditure per month
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Rs.140,000
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Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km)
(For a visit to ISLAMABAD & return: 6000 km) |
Rs.48,000
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Daily BETA during Assembly meets
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Rs.500
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Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train
(All over PAKISTAN) |
Free
Unlimited |
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Charge for Business Class in flights
(With wife or P.A.) |
Free for 40
trips / year |
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Rent for Govt hostel any where
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Free
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Electricity costs at home
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Free up to 50,000 units
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Local phone call charge
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Free up to 1,70,000 calls.
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TOTAL expense for a MNA per year
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Rs.32,000,000
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TOTAL expense for 5 years
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Rs.1,60,000,000
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For
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Rs. 5,47,20,000,000 |
Keep in mind that these numbers are only the official estimates. You can imagine for yourself the unofficial sums easily acquired by a man in such a position.
Why are we wasting so much of money on a ghost assembly whose job is to do … NOTHING. They have no powers but quite simply play the game as it create a silver lining in their pockets both in terms of official perks and all the unofficial perks they
must be enjoying.
The current batch of 534 MNA’s have done nothing but bash their tables or quite often staging a walk-out in protest. I have occasionally had the displeasure to watch this circus on TV and it appears that these illiterate hooligans quite often simply don’t understand the issue at hand let alone comprehend its importance for its benefits or disadvantages on behalf which may impact the very constituents who elected him into office in the first place. (For earlier ATP posts on some interesting MNA behavior, see here and here).
Dr. Awab Alvi blogs as Teeth Maestro and is one of the people behind Help-Pakistan.com and Bloggers.pk.
The figures may be concocted, but are probably not very far off from reality. BTW, the “constitution allowance” is probably a typo. It is probably a “constituency allowance” similar to the one given to MPs in India. The rationale behind this allowance is that MPs have to maintain an office in their constituencies and hence need to be compensated for that.
Chacko: I don’t think MPs are provided Government accomodation in their constituencies, though I could be wrong. I did not see a mention of this in the “Salaries and Allowances Act”, which I looked up on the Lok Sabha website before writing up my post above.
BTW, here is what an Indian MP makes (all figures in INR, so need to be converted to PKR to compare with the figures for Pakistani MNAs)
Salary: Rs. 16000 pm
Daily Allowance (for days attended when Parliament is in session): Rs. 1000 per day
Constituency allowance: Rs. 10000 pm
Office expenses: Rs. 14000 pm (or actual expenses, whichever is lower)
Daily travel allowance: Rs. 8 per km
Rail travel (First Class AC): free (unlimited) for self and spouse/companion
Air Travel: 40 free one-way trips in Business Class
Bungalow in Delhi: subsidized (rent @ Rs. 2000 pm)
Electricity: 50000 units free per year
Water: free (unlimited)
Furniture: 1 nos. airconditioner, 1 nos. refrigerator, 1 nos. television set, necessary furniture, their maintenance (including washing of curtains and sofa covers etc.)
Telephone: 3 telephone lines free of monthly fee, 170000 free calls every year
According to a report I read, the total expenses per MP per year came to Rs. 38 lakhs. Additionally, each MP gets to spend up to Rs. 2 crores every year on projects in his/her constituency (though he does not directly get to touch the money and it is routed through the district administration). Thus, the total expense per MP per year comes to a max. of Rs. 2.38 crores. For about 544 Lok Sabha MPs 250 Rajya Sabha MPs, that comes to approx. Rs. 300 crores on salaries perks alone, and a total of about Rs. 1900 crores if you include their MP Local Area Development Funds of Rs. 2 crores each.
As both our Indian friends would have noticed by now… these figures are wholely concocted.
Let me reorient this discussion a little bit. While the money that is spent on an MNA in Pakistan or an MP/MLA in India/Pakistan might seem like a lot, I do think that it is not excessive. In the early years after independence, MPs really used to get a pittance (I know this at least for India, not sure about Pakistan). It was ok in the days when most politicians were already rich before entering politics, either through ancestral wealth or through their own hard work (many were successful lawyers). But soon the social composition of Parliament changed and now most MPs come from more humble backgrounds and don’t have other (legitimate) sources of income. MPs have expenses and have families to run, so the compensation they get is not excessive.
Thus, I don’t think the problem is the money we pay them. The problem is that there is little accountability. There is rampant corruption even within Parliament (there was a recent explusion of 11 MPs cutting across party lines for taking bribes to ask questions in Parliament). Very little real business is transacted in Parliament because most of the time is spent in raising a hue and cry about non-issues. The crucial oversight role of Parliament is not being performed properly. And most importantly, we don’t think the MPs are really dependent on this money since we take it as a given that they make much more through illegitimate means (though that may not be true about 100% of MPs).
To sum up, we should change the focus from “how much are we paying the MPs” to “how much are we extracting from the MPs for what we pay them”. From, “they are already making so much through corrupt means, so why should we also pay so much” to “can we control corruption while simultaneously paying them a salary that allows them a decent standard of living”. Accountability, rather than the expense per se must be the focus.
Wow. That’s much more than Indian MPs make. I’m crossing over :-)
Do your guys get free housing at state and in the capital free? Our MPs do. One in their home state and one in Delhi.