ISLAMABAD – A Senate panel has decided to strip the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) boards of their authority to fix top executives’ salaries, after revelations of massive pay hikes sparked outrage among legislators.
The Senate Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by PPP’s Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, took the decision on Thursday following disclosures that SECP Chairman Akif Saeed and commissioners had awarded themselves retrospective salary increases. The Law and Justice Secretary Raja Naeem Akbar endorsed the committee’s decision to amend the SBP Act and SECP Act to withdraw the boards’ salary-fixing powers.
The controversy emerged after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported that the SECP chairman was drawing an annual salary of Rs41.53 million, while each commissioner received Rs35.8 million, owing to backdated raises approved in a Policy Board meeting in October 2024. The audit further revealed Rs110 million in entertainment allowances had been distributed without approval.
“The authority to increase the salary has been misused,” remarked former law minister Senator Farooq H. Naek during the meeting. Senator Anusha Rahman highlighted that out of 18 regulators, only three boards — including SECP and SBP — had such powers, while the rest required cabinet approval.
Defending the decision, SECP Chairman Saeed argued that the raises were market-based and within the board’s legal mandate. But members of the committee disagreed, stressing that financial autonomy could not be misused. Senator Naek added, “Even the Supreme Court cannot set judges’ salaries — they are fixed by the President on the prime minister’s advice.”
Other regulators also voiced concerns. Dr. Kabir Sidhu, Chairman of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), pointed out that his salary was one-seventh of the SECP chairman’s, adding that CCP cannot fix salaries without government approval.
The controversy has also reignited scrutiny of other regulatory bodies. A report earlier this year revealed that NEPRA officials had raised their salaries to as high as Rs3.25 million per month without mandatory cabinet clearance, far beyond the approved MP-I scale cap of Rs772,780.
The Senate committee has now asked the Law Ministry to draft amendments to ensure future salary decisions for SECP, SBP, and other regulators require federal approval, curbing what lawmakers describe as “abuse of public funds in the name of autonomy.”