The Finance Division on Saturday denied the government issuing instructions to stop pension and salary payments, deeming reports to the contrary “completely false”.
The clarification comes after the local media reported that the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) had been told by the Finance Ministry to “stop clearing all federal ministries and attached department’s bills until further orders”.
“Even the clearance of salary bills has also been stopped,” claimed the report, which quoted “top official sources” as saying that “operational cost-related releases faced difficulties mainly because of lingering financial difficulties being faced by the country.”
However, a press release issued from the Finance Division rejected the story, saying: “There are rumours floating around that the government has instructed to stop payment of pay, pension, etc. This is completely false as no such instructions have been given by Finance Division, which is the concerned Federal Ministry.”
It added that the accountant general of Pakistan revenue (AGPR) has “confirmed that pay and pension have already been processed and will be paid on time.”
The press release further said that other payments were also being processed as per routine.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the “fake news” was being spread to “cause harm to the national economic interests”.
“Kindly refrain from circulating such reports and news without verifying from the concerned ministry,” he urged the people.
The development comes amid a precarious economic situation for the country where the government is in a race against time to implement tax measures and reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the country’s reserves depleted to around $3 billion, which experts believe is enough for only 16 or 17 days of imports.
The agreement with the IMF on the completion of the ninth review of a $7bn loan programme would not only lead to a disbursement of $1.2bn but also unlock inflows from friendly countries.
