The National Assembly’s Finance Committee has approved a proposal to increase the salaries and privileges of Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and senators to Rs519,000 per month, providing a significant financial boost to parliamentarians.
According to parliamentary sources, the Finance Committee met with National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq before approving the salary increase. Senior members from various parliamentary parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and others, met informally with the speaker to advocate for the salary hike.
The speaker sent the finance committee’s recommendations to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for final approval. The salary adjustment aligns lawmakers’ pay with federal secretaries’ pay and matches the benefits provided to Punjab Assembly members.
Read: Pakistani Government Proposes 200% Salary Increase for MNAs, Senators
Sources indicate that lawmakers initially demanded a monthly salary of Rs1 million, but Speaker Sadiq rejected this proposal. Notably, the last salary increase for parliamentarians occurred seven years ago, when Rs15,000 was added to their pay. Since then, their salaries have not increased.
Despite political differences, all parliamentary parties have supported the salary increase, including PPP, PTI, PML-N, and others. This unanimous agreement follows a similar decision made in the Punjab Assembly, which, in December, approved a significant salary hike for its lawmakers, raising their pay from Rs76,000 to Rs400,000.
In addition to the increases for MNAs and senators, the Punjab Assembly also raised the salaries of provincial ministers from Rs100,000 to Rs960,000. The speaker’s salary increased from Rs125,000 to Rs950,000, while the deputy speaker’s pay was hiked to Rs800,000, up from Rs120,000. Parliamentary secretaries will now earn Rs451,000, up from Rs83,000, while advisers and special assistants to the CM saw their salaries rise from Rs100,000 to Rs665,000.
