While the Prime Minister touts a relief package carved from oil price tweaks, the cabinet’s decision to double its ranks and shower itself with massive raises has unleashed a wave of public anger, exposing a stark disconnect from the electorate’s hardships.
The federal cabinet recently greenlit a hefty pay hike for its top brass—federal ministers, state ministers, and advisers—boosting their salaries by a staggering 188pc. The move follows hot on the heels of the Prime Minister’s call last month to balloon the cabinet from a lean 21 members to a sprawling 55. Now, the lineup boasts 30 federal ministers, nine state ministers, four special assistants, four advisers, and eight additional aides to the Prime Minister. But here’s where it gets messy: some ministries now have a trio of appointees, each tethered to a different political faction. Take the Interior Ministry, for instance—Mohsin Naqvi helms it as Interior Minister, Talal Chaudhary chips in as Minister of State for Interior, and Pervez Khattak weighs in as the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior. It’s a classic case of too many chefs in the kitchen, and there’s a real worry the stew might turn sour.
Political observers see this less as chaos and more as a calculated play. They argue—with some heft—that this salary spike is just the latest chapter in a long-running saga of political payback, a reward for loyal allies who’ve propped up the administration. What’s raising eyebrows, though, is that many of these cabinet heavyweights aren’t even elected lawmakers or party-picked senators. Yet they’re cashing in on this raise, which comes on top of a jaw-dropping 200pc salary bump for National Assembly Members. That boost sailed through in February 2025, backed unanimously—even by the Opposition. The pitch? To align lawmakers’ pay with federal secretaries at a cool Rs519,000 a month.
Meanwhile, the country’s finances are stretched razor-thin. Revenue goals this year are pie-in-the-sky—up 40 percent from last year—while economic growth limps along, shackled by harsh fiscal tightening greenlit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Against this backdrop, doling out massive raises to cabinet members and public reps—who already earn like Pakistan’s top 5pc—feels wildly out of touch.
And then there’s the gut punch: 44pc of Pakistanis are mired in poverty. It’s hard to wrap your head around how elected leaders can seem so blind to the struggles of their own people. Whispers are growing louder that these tone-deaf decisions might explain why the IMF nixed the Prime Minister’s plan to slash tariffs on March 23. That promise, trumpeted in a press release on March 15—just after an IMF team wrapped up a review without sealing a deal—now looks like a casualty of the fiscal disconnect.
The Prime Minister recently touted a plan to channel savings from oil price tweaks and other fiscal maneuvers into a hefty relief package for the public. Sounds promising, right? But here’s the rub: while that “financial space” is supposedly being sculpted into something meaningful, the cabinet’s latest moves tell a different story. They’ve jacked up their own salaries and doubled the cabinet’s size—moves that, while a tiny sliver of the year’s 18.877 trillion rupee budget, have sparked a firestorm of public outrage. And it’s not hard to see why. To many, this reeks of a government thumbing its nose at the very people it’s meant to serve.
Hot on the heels of the National Assembly’s lead, federal cabinet members—most of whom are already swimming in wealth—have handed themselves eye-popping pay raises. In Pakistan, cabinet members who also sit as elected lawmakers get to double-dip, pulling in one salary as parliamentarians and another as ministers. For MNAs moonlighting as ministers, that means monthly paychecks now topping 1 million rupees. Toss in the perks and privileges, and their total take-home edges closer to double that. Billionaires, it seems, just can’t get enough.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Just days ago, the Federal Finance Minister was on record saying there’s no room in the budget to give federal employees a raise. The contrast is glaring: wealthy politicians padding their own pockets while low-wage bureaucrats can’t even snag an inflation bump. It’s a brutal look, but apparently, caring about appearances is optional if you’re not sweating reelection.
The government’s busy high-fiving itself for taming inflation, but let’s keep it real—“down” doesn’t mean much when you’re falling from the stratosphere. After years of punishing price spikes, people’s wallets are still reeling, and incomes haven’t caught up to the wreckage. For elected officials to turn around and treat themselves like royalty instead of public servants feels reckless, even arrogant. And here’s a fun fact: if the cabinet had skipped these raises, most of them would still be raking in more cash thanks to the generous bumps MNAs already voted for themselves.
Some lawmakers might whine that they’re underpaid compared to politicians abroad, but how about stacking their earnings against the folks back home? The average MNA now pulls in about seven times what a typical salaried Pakistani makes. In most countries, that gap hovers around a more digestible 200% of average incomes. If these leaders want a paycheck that’s “fair,” maybe they should hit pause on the self-awarded windfalls and wait until the economy lifts everyone’s boat—say, when regular wages actually climb thanks to some real progress. Until then, this just looks like a cash grab dressed up as governance.
Until the economy lifts everyday Pakistanis’ incomes, these lavish self-awarded hikes cast leaders as out-of-touch elites, eroding faith in a system that prioritizes privilege over progress.