Pakistan Embassy in Washington faces financial crisis, out of funds to pay staff: Report

It seems like the Pakistan Embassy in Serbia is not its only diplomatic mission abroad that is facing a financial crunch. A day after Pakistan's Serbian diplomats were forced to revolt against PM Imran Khan on social media, it is now being reported that the Pakistan Embassy in Washington is also in dire states. 

According to The News International, the Pakistan Embassy in the United States was unable to pay the salaries of its contractual employees for nearly 4 months. At least five of the locally recruited Pakistani embassy employees faced delays and non-payment of their monthly wages from August 2021, the report stated. The financial crisis escalated to an extent where a decade-old staffer was forced to tender his resignation in September owing to delays and non-payment. 

"These unpaid local staffers were hired by the embassy on an annual contract basis and worked for the mission on bare-minimum salaries, which ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 dollars per person per month," The News International reported adding that these local hires, whether permanent or contractual, do not even get perks and privileges that Foreign Office employees enjoy, including healthcare benefits. 

Funds collapse, embassy struggling  

The report disclosed that local hires were paid out of the Pakistan Community Welfare (PCW) fund, which collapsed in 2020 after its funds were diverted to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. This affected the salary payments leading to a situation where the embassy had to borrow money from other account heads to keep up with the monthly salaries for the staffers. In October 2021, unpaid staffers wrote a letter to the ambassador urging him to resolve the issue. The matter was then reportedly taken up with the Foreign Office in Islamabad, which managed to secure all salaries just last week. 

The News quoted the embassy's spokesperson as saying, "Currently there is no salary-related issue being faced by the Embassy staff." The spokesperson further added, "while we always endeavour to disburse salaries to our staff on time, there are instances when due to longer than usual time in the processing of remittances from Pakistan and certain budgetary constraints, results in delay in disbursement of salaries to the staff."

The report comes a day after the Pakistan Embassy in Serbia released a song mocking Imran Khan through its official Twitter handle. The now-deleted tweet had revealed that the Pakistan government has not paid the dues for the past three months. Moreover, it also claimed that children of officials in Pakistan's embassy have been forced out of school due to non-payment of fees. 

Image: AP