The Finance Ministry has officially cleared that Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb never made any announcement of refusing to raise the salaries of government employees in the next budget.

The clarification follows media reports that the minister had rejected any salary hike for the next financial year.

In its statement, the ministry clarified that the finance minister, in a session of the National Assembly, only mentioned that no decision has been reached on raising salaries yet. This is not to say that the government has ruled out the raise, but that talks on it are still ongoing.

The ministry went on to explain further that in Question Hour in the National Assembly, a written reply was given, stating that there is no proposal under consideration for changing pay scales or allowances of employees of the government.

The statement, however, made it clear that it is not a rejection of a salary hike outright, as the decision is still pending.