Islamabad — Pakistan's government has ordered salary cuts of 5-30% for employees of state-owned enterprises and autonomous institutions, the latest austerity measure as economic crisis collides with regional conflict. The directive, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's office, targets government workers while leaving the elite untouched — a pattern Pakistan's beleaguered middle class knows too well.
The cuts come as global oil markets convulse from the US-Israel conflict with Iran. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz triggered Pakistan to raise petrol and diesel prices by Rs55 per liter. The government's solution: make teachers, railway clerks, and utility workers pay for geopolitical shocks they didn't cause.
"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others," posted one user on Reddit, channeling Orwell. The reference cuts deep. Pakistan's tax-paying middle class will absorb fuel price increases, higher energy rates, inflation, and now salary cuts. Meanwhile, the executive, judiciary, military, and bureaucracy continue as before. Private jets still fly. Luxury convoys still roll.
Farhan Ahmed, a government schoolteacher in Lahore, earns Rs45,000 monthly (about $156). A 30% cut would reduce that to Rs31,500 — barely enough to feed his family of five with inflation eroding purchasing power daily. "They tell us it's austerity," he said bitterly. "But I don't see the Prime Minister's children giving up their foreign trips."
According to Dawn, the Prime Minister's Office justified the cuts by claiming "the funds saved as a result of all austerity measures would be used 'only for public relief.'" The promise rings hollow when law enforcement agencies and the Federal Board of Revenue are exempt from even the symbolic 4-day work week imposed on other departments.
The exemptions reveal priorities. Security forces and tax collectors maintain full operations and, presumably, full salaries. State-owned enterprise employees and autonomous body workers — engineers at Pakistan Railways, clerks at utility companies, staff at public universities — bear the burden.
