Pak SC terms Imran-led govt acquiring loans for payment of salaries as 'dangerous act'

Pakistan Supreme Court on Wednesday remarked that it was very dangerous act by Imran Khan-led government to acquire loans for payment of salaries to the employees.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad Tuesday remarked that the government departments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province were overstaffed and now loans were being obtained by the government to pay the employees' salaries, reported The News International.

As head of a three-member apex court bench, he was hearing a petition, filed by Fazal Mukhtar, a former forest guard of the KP Forestry, Environment & Wildlife Department, for payment of pension.

The counsel for the petitioner stated in the court that his client was recruited as a forest guard in 1989 for a project and his services were terminated in 1994. He was recruited again at the same time, but on his retirement, those four years of his service were not included for payment of pension, reported The News International.

The Chief Justice asked Additional Advocate General (AAG) Qasim Wadood if the KP provincial departments were not in a position to pay employees their salaries and pensions.

He remarked that the government departments had been filled to the capacity in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and now it was acquiring loans from the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank (WB), reported The News International.

It was a dangerous thing that the government employees' salaries were being paid through loans. "Were there no other sources of income in KP except for the government employment?" asked the Chief Justice.

However, the AAG replied that no province could get any loan from the IMF and the WB directly.

( With inputs from ANI )