ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday announced that in line with the announcement by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the federal cabinet has approved a 15% increase in the salaries of the civil armed forces and 15% disparity allowance for federal employees from grade one to 19. Addressing a press conference after the cabinet meeting in Islamabad, the minister said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) could not recover Rs3,000 billion due to ongoing cases in courts. “FBR is unable to recover money due to stay orders,” Fawad said, clarifying that the PTI-led government respects all institutions and works together with them. The federal minister reiterated “there is no doubt that the price of petroleum products will increase further.” However, he added that the decision regarding the price of petrol does not depend on the cabinet as it is dependent on other factors. Speaking about the provincial vaccine dilemma, Fawad said that the Sindh chief minister had asked the federal government to import vaccines for them. “Sindh government has not even spent a single dollar on vaccines and all vaccines were provided by the federal government,” he said, adding that despite that, the number of people vaccinated in Karachi is comparatively very less. He further added that $725 million have been received from international institutions for the purchase of vaccines, stating that vaccines worth $2.5 billion have already been administered to people.
