The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday suspended the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision of raising retirement age of government employees from 60 to 63 years as part of its austerity drive. A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Naeem Anwar announced the short order after conclusion of arguments. The bench observed that the province has been made an ‘experimental laboratory’, adding that Punjab and the Centre did not implement the decision of increasing retirement age of the employees. It also noted that former KP chief secretary Saleem Khan had also raised serious objections over the government’s decision in this regard and mentioned the same in his summery to the government. Representing the respondents, Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt argued that the provincial government has the power to increase the retirement age of its employees. He insisted that the decision will lessen financial burden on the province besides increasing volume of development programs. He further told the court that the situation will become normal after three years. The petitioners’ counsels in their arguments maintained that 123,000 government posts are lying vacant which could not be filled due to the raise in the retirement age. Nine writ petitions were filled in the high court against the KP government’s decision. The petitioners had made the provincial government respondent in the case. The KP government had raised the retirement age of government officials in the province as part of its austerity drive in July last year. The opposition had rejected the bill, arguing that the law was being amended to facilitate a small number of officials who were on the verge of retirement.