Where's Wapda?

My mother Mrs Bakhat Ara Begum Haral who is 78 years old is entitled to family pension from Wapda after the death of my father. Since February of 2019, the pensions and finance offices have been refusing to release access to her pension despite sending letter after letter for payment of arrears and monthly pension. Both plea that they do not have enough budget to pay the money (which is around Rs8 lakh) my mother is entitled to. This is sheer irresponsibility on the side of the federal government. The FESCO Chiniot office transferred the eight lakh rupees into my mother's account but it was blocked when they did not receive reimbursement from the Director Pensions office, which is absolutely illegal.

Now she cannot even apply for a cheque book for her bank account. I have made complaints to the PM’s Citizen Portal and ombudsman but to no avail as Wapda and its staff are totally oblivious to the miseries of pensioners. An old lady cannot run from pillar to post to claim her legal rights. By refusing to give my mother what she is owed they are insulting the efforts my father put in throughout his lifetime as an employee to them. The lack of funds that they claim have nothing to do with my mother’s money. This is a debt that they have to their employee’s family and they need to pay it back as was promised. I wish to bring this matter to the attention of the concerned authorities to show them how incredibly disrespectful they are. My father worked hard to earn his pension.

Tanweer Ahmed Haral

Lahore