ISLAMABAD – The Punjab government will provide 77 new luxury vehicles to its lawmakers after an approval by Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar.
The Services and General Administration Department had sent the summary to issue 70 new cars for the lawmakers to the Finance department on March 29.
The members of Punjab Assembly had refused to take old cars provided by the government.
The move appeared at a time when the government was focusing on austerity measures, curtailing unnecessary expenditures and focusing on public welfare programs.
However, Dr Shahbaz Gill, spokesperson for Punjab government, denied all such reports.
https://twitter.com/SHABAZGIL/status/1113394212391858176
He termed such reports baseless, adding that no such decision has been taken.
Earlier, the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a bill increasing the salary, allowances, perks and privileges to each legislator just in 24 hours.
According to the bill, MPA’s salary and incentives have been increased from Rs83000 to Rs2 lac per month.
The basic salary was raised from Rs18,000 to Rs80,000/month, daily allowance from Rs1000 to Rs4000/month and house rent from Rs29,000 to Rs50,000/month.
Besides this, the bill had fixed utility allowance from Rs6000 to Rs20,000/month and hospitality allowance from Rs10,000 to Rs20,000/month.
This received wide criticism, following which Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar did not sign the bill.
