Govt advised to cut pensions, increase retirement age

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to reduce the pension of Islamabad police and other government employees, sources said.

The Establishment Division has referred a draft notification to the authority concerned for final approval.

The notification also discusses increase in the age of retirement from 60 to 62 as an option to reduce the burden of pension liabilities.

The Finance Division may consider this option to avoid the adverse impact of proposed pension reforms on the morale of government servants.

The summary proposes 30% reduction in the pension structure and the government employees shall be entitled to a gross pension based on 70% of average pensionable emoluments drawn during the last thirty-six months of service before retirement. This will be a matter of concern for employees promoted in the last year of their service. The calculation of pension on the average pensionable emoluments from the last thirty-six months will place them at a disadvantage concerning others due to the lower average value.

It has indicated in the notification that the matter of framing of rules on pay and allowances, retirement benefits and other financial terms and conditions of service of government servants primarily falls under the domain of Finance Division in terms of Rule 12 (h) of (Part-B, consultation amongst Division) read with Sr. No. 12 (16) of Schedule-II of Rules of Business, 1973.

The proposal of the draft notification relating to early retirement reduction/penalty of 3% per year is too excessive and needs to be revisited, as there are instances where the government servants have genuine reasons to opt for early retirement. The proposal relating to annual increase in pay seems to be misplaced in the draft notification.