ISLAMABAD - Due to the intervention of Federal Ombudsman, the Radio Pakistan pensioners have got 10% increase in their pensions. According to a press release issued here on Sunday, more than 50 pensioners of Radio Pakistan had filed complaints with the Federal Ombudsman for their failure to get 10% increase in their pensions, which was allowed by the Federal Government in April, 2022. During hearing proceedings, the representative of Radio Pakistan informed that the funds allocated by the Finance Division were insufficient to meet the pensioners demand.
The Ombudsman gave verdict in favour of the complainants and directed the management of Radio Pakistan to arrange funds at earliest and increase the pension of the complainants within 30 days.
Finally, with the efforts of Consultant Implementation Pervez Halim Rajput, the PBC management has endorsed the 10% increase in the pension of Radio Pakistan employees’ along with arrears.
The pensioners of Radio Pakistan have thanked the Federal Ombudsman for timely intervention to resolve their grievances.
OMBUDSMAN shows concerns over situation of pensioners
The Federal Ombudsman Ejaz Ahmad Qureshi took notice of the alarming situation of pensioners and directed the establishment of a pension desk in all major ministries and corporations.
He has been receiving a large number of complaints regarding delays in their pension and other post-retirement benefits. There is total apathy by the departments / Agencies while hefty bribe is demanded from the poor pensioners. Otherwise, their cases are delayed in red tape for months and years. This has led to the emergence of “touts” who obtain large sums to facilitate pension cases.
To address this serious situation, Wafaqi Mohtasib had setup a monitoring committee headed by a Senior Advisor Muhammad Ayub Tarin former Additional Auditor General and Additional Finance Secretary.
While presiding a meeting of the monitoring committee on 28th June 2022, Wafaqi Mohtasib directed that major Ministries, Corporation / Agencies, that deals with thousands of pensioners should ensure functional pension desk, manned by trained staff and to be supervised by a Senior Officer to facilitate the processing of pension cases and save the old pensioners, widows, orphans from running pillar to post.
The meeting was attended by the Secretary WMS Mr. Ejaz Ahmed Khan, Senior Advisors of WMS Mr. Muhammad Ayub Tarin, Mr. Ahmed Farooq & other senior officers, Mr. Jibran A. Malik, CFAO Establishment Division, Mr. Kashif Ahmed Noor, Member (Finance) Railways, Mr. Hasnat A. Qureshi, DG (Accounts) CGA, DG AGPR and other stakeholders.
The issue of allocation of funds to Agencies like Railways and EOBI needs to be tackled without delay. He directed that special meeting with the Ministry of Finance and other agencies with complaints of shortage of allocation should be held shortly to streamline the whole system to facilitate payment and curtail the misery of pensioners.