President Asif Ali Zardari has approved a substantial salary increase for federal ministers and ministers of state, raising their monthly compensation to Rs. 519,000. This represents a significant jump from their previous salaries of Rs. 200,000 and Rs. 180,000 respectively.

The presidential approval aligns cabinet members’ salaries with those of Members of the National Assembly, who recently saw their own compensation increased to Rs. 519,000 by the NA Finance Committee.

This salary enhancement comes just weeks after a major expansion of the federal cabinet on February 27, which doubled in size to include 30 federal ministers, nine ministers of state, and four advisers.

In addition to the salary adjustments, President Zardari promulgated two significant ordinances. The first establishes the National Agri-trade and Food Safety Authority (NAFSA), tasked with enforcing sanitary and phytosanitary standards in trade. The second, the Tax Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, aims to accelerate the recovery of tax amounts currently tied up in litigation.

The timing of these salary increases coincides with the government’s preparations to raise next fiscal year’s tax collection targets by approximately Rs. 2 trillion.