In about 2012, after lambasting the ‘Cadillac lifestyle’ of the PPP/C regime, focusing upon the salaries, pension and other tax free benefits to which former presidents were entitled, the opposition in the hung parliament that resulted from the 2011 national elections sponsored and passed a resolution in the National Assembly calling for substantial reductions in those benefits and promised to make its recommended changes if it ever came to government. To its credit, after coming to government the coalition did immediately by way of the Former Presidents (Benefits and Other Facilities) Act 2015, substantially reduce, placed limits and make more predictable the benefits, including tax free concessions, to which former presidents are now entitled.
