Govt asked to raise pension amid inflation

MARDAN: The office-bearers of All Pensioners Association, Mardan district, on Monday demanded the government to increase the pensions of retired employees.

The demand was made by Uzairullah, Mirza Ali, Qazi Aslam and other members of All Pensioners Association at a meeting, chaired by Syed Rauf.

The speakers said the government had increased the salaries of the present service employees by 25 percent, which is a good decision but at the same time, the government should also increase the pensions of pensioners.

They said that retired employees had served the nation for 35 to 40 years, but the government was ignoring their problems amid the rising prices of food items. The speakers said the government had increased the salaries of the elected members of the national and provincial assemblies and hence it should also take pity on the retired employees and increase their pensions by 100 per cent along with increase in the medical allowance by Rs10,000.

Irrigation Deptt accused of violating merit: Several retired employees of the Irrigation Department here on Monday alleged that the department had allegedly violated merit in recruitment process recently.

In a written statement, retired employees Sahib Shah, Tamriz, Jamshed, Khan Bacha, Lal Muhammad, Zaman Shaid, Roshan and others said that some employees of the department had retired years back but the officials did not give jobs to their wards.

They alleged that the officials of Mardan Irrigation Department had allegedly violated merit in the recruitment and demanded an inquiry into the matter.