The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has proposed raising the monthly salary of the Environmental Protection Tribunal chairman from Rs231,463 to Rs1,000,000, an increase of nearly 332 percent, while also proposing substantial pay boosts for tribunal members. The move is presented as an effort to align compensation with other tribunals but comes as the provincial government faces large outstanding liabilities.
Advocate Malik Haroon Iqbal currently holds the chairmanship of the Environmental Protection Tribunal and is entitled to a Grade-21 salary scale that presently amounts to Rs231,463 per month. Tribunal officials say the existing pay level was deemed inconsistent with remuneration in comparable bodies.
A registrar’s report cited sharp disparities between tribunal pay scales. It noted that the chairman of the KP Service Tribunal receives about Rs3.34 million per month and the chairman of the Medical Teaching Institution Appellate Tribunal about Rs1.56 million per month. The chairman of the former FATA Tribunal was also cited as receiving roughly Rs1 million monthly.
To address these differences, the government has proposed amendments to the KP Environmental Protection Tribunal Rules, 2016. Under the proposed changes, the EPT chairman would receive Rs1,000,000 per month, and both technical and legal members would be paid Rs800,000 each, subject to approval by the provincial cabinet.
The proposal arrives as the provincial government manages significant financial pressures. Outstanding liabilities total Rs709.61 billion, and officials say additional financial commitments amounting to hundreds of billions of rupees are expected in the coming years, raising questions about the timing and affordability of large pay increases.
