MUZAFFARABAD (Kashmir English): Senior lawyer and social leader Khawaja Akbar Advocate has revealed that the Finance Department release the minimum salary fixed by the government for unskilled contingent paid staff, but the officers of the departments were embezzling by paying them to ghost employees or those who were working in their own or politicians’ homes.
In an exclusive interview with Kashmir Digital, Akbar Advocate said, “In 2021, he met a coolie in Neelum Sharda who told him that he was getting paid less than the government announced and requested him to raise his voice at any higher forum”.
The advocate, according to him, started working on the matter of low salaries and found that thousands of daily wage government employees were deprived of their basic salaries.
The probe revealed that the government releases the basic salary every year in the budget, and the budget is also issued to the departments.
The Finance Department has been releasing the full salary of the daily wage employees, but the officers at concerned departments have been deducting the money of the workers in the names of those working in the homes of politicians or ghost employees, he claimed.
The senior lawyer said that when the case was filed in 2021, the basic salary was Rs 20,000 per month. The case of bullock carters was also included and petitions were filed in 2022, and after four years, the decision was made in favor of the employees.
He said, “During the case, the departments have put pressure on the petitioners (small employees) and even I was approached and told that these employees would be dismissed from their jobs. But I told the employees to stand firm, if they are dismissed, I will fight that case for free.”
Furthermore, the lawyer added that on February 21, 2025, the High Court of Azad Kashmir issued a directive that the monthly salary of Rs 37,000 should be ensured to the employees for the last 3 months and the arrears should also be paid from 2021.
Khawaja Akbar Advocate warned of going to court, if the institutions fail to comply with high court’s decision to pay the full salaries to the employees in 3 months.
