ESSENTIAL staff and those with low salaries among political appointments to the civil service will be retained under new contracts, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

“We will terminate their contracts, but re-engage those who are essential and those who are earning lower pay.

“These (those earning low pay) are not really political (appointments); they are people like drivers and so on, people with very low incomes.

Dr Mahathir said this in a press conference after chairing the first cabinet meeting in Putrajaya today.

He was referring to the 17,000 contract civil service staff who were political appointments under the previous administration.

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