Retired employees of TMA, city district govt not paid pension for 6 months

Rawalpindi

Over 3,000 retired employees of Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Rawal Town and Potohar Town as well as the city district government are perturbed over allegedly non-payment of their pension for the last six months.

They alleged that they have not been paid their pension for six months despite making hue and cry before the concerned officials several times. The affected employees alleged that every time the related officials of District Accounts Office give excuses of non-availability of funds for clearance of pensions to the retired employees.

They alleged that as the problem in regular payment of pensions started in November 2015. As the retired employees adopted legal way to achieve their rights, the Supreme Court had directed the concerned authorities which also include the Punjab government to clear the pensions of retired employees by suspending developmental works. The court had also directed if the development funds becomes insufficient for payment of pension clearance then amount earmarked for expenditure purposes like payment of utility bills be utilised on pension payments. If even the required amount for pension payments is not covered then the apex court had ordered for suspending the emoluments/salaries of higher officials of TMAs and the City District Government for overcoming the issue of pension clearance to the retired employees of the Punjab government.

A senior Public Relation Officer of TMA, Rawal Town, Tahir Mahmood Khan who is also president of Retired Officers Association of the Punjab Government while backing other retired employees alleged that he retired in May this year, however, since then he has not been paid pensions despite running pillar to post. He said that the concerned authorities are violating the orders of the Supreme Court by not adopting measures for payment of pensions. He said that the court orders are being violated and Punjab Chief Minister Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif is not taking notice over the matter. He said that TMA earmarks amount of more than one billion rupees in its annual budget for the year 2016-17 but it has no funds of Rs40.5 million for clearance of pensions to the retired employees.

The other representatives of the Retired Officers Association along with Tahir Mahmood Khan appealed to the Punjab chief minister to take immediate notice of the issue and direct the related higher officials in the District Accounts Office for clearing pensions of the retired employees. They gave deadline of 15 days for resolution of their issue, otherwise threatened to adopt way of protest and staging demonstrations.

When approached the senior officials of TMA, Rawal Town, Mir Mohammad Akmal and Shahzad Gondal, gave different statements which did not match to the allegations levelled by retired employees.

Shahzad Gondal, Town Officer, said that the pensions of retired employees of TMA are cleared up to date. There is no issue of non-payment of pensions to retired employees of TMA. At the same time he said that due to non-availability of funds, pensions are not being paid to the employees.

TMO Mir Mohammad Akmal in his comments in order to defend his own position held the district government responsible. He said it is the issue of district government to pay pensions to the retired employees of the local government departments and TMA has nothing to do in this regard.

However, deputy district accounts officer of the city district government, Tariq Waheed agreed the fact that payment to pensioners has to be cleared and remains outstanding. I am trying to derive new modalities in order to resolve the issue of pensioners. He said that against total budget of Rs40.5 million required for pension payments, an amount of only Rs8 million are generated. Under these circumstances it becomes difficult to pay pensions to every employee. Similarly, Tariq Waheed cleared that the retired employees are not related to Punjab government rather the local departments have been handed over to the city district government's supervision. He said that efforts are being made by the city district government, the issue of payment of pensions would be resolved within next 15 days and every employees who is retired would get pension accordingly.