Daily Times

Retired government servants continue to suffer due to delayed pension payments, as over 125 pension and commutation cases of Larkana district remain in limbo for the past six months.

This was learnt after this scribe visited the office of the District Accounts Officer (DAO) to inquire the facts and figures of the pending cases and the reasons behind the delays on retired government employees pension payments.

When inquired, sources in the DAO’s office confirmed that over 125 cases of different government departments are pending for want of funds since the past six months which are yet to be released by the provincial government. These pension cases pertain to various departments including health and education officers and low paid employees.

Two of the pensioners requesting anonymity, said that even GP Fund cases were not finalised because the accountant of the section was transferred two months ago and he was posted yesterday. They said GP Fund amount is available with the DAO, but since the government failed to post a suitable person for two months, they had to run from pillar to post to get their funds on time.

When asked as to why the DAO did not hand-over the charge to any other officer or sign the bill himself so that backlog of poor men’s cases could be cleared, they said that it seems that he is not interested in resolving the issues confronted by the employees who gave their blood to run the concerned departments.

One of the DAO’s employees said that whenever meetings are held at the finance department in Karachi, the higher officers order strict instructions to stay mum over anything which is discussed, and employees are directed not to reveal the statistics of pending cases.

Owing to unavailability of required funds for the retired government servants, the officers always insist on lingering the cases as much as possible, he added. He said leaking of data to the media will defame the provincial government. He claimed pension cases are being cleared elsewhere but Larkana has been put on hold for unknown reasons.

When contacted, Hamza Khan Kalhoro of Government Retired Employees Welfare Association, he said that the Sindh Government is constantly, openly and daringly violating the apex court order of giving group insurance amount to its retired employees for years. He said it was astonishing and never expected from the rulers of Sindh that they would fail to pay pension and commutation funds on time to its employees who gave their lives to manage the departments and ensured their smooth running.

When this scribe contacted the DAO Zamir Hussain Khokhar, he said that it is a fact that relevant funds have not been provided yet, therefore the pension and commutation cases continued to pile up. He said at least over Rs250 million are urgently required to clear the dues of retired employees as they are also pressurising very hard through their influences. He said the issue is always raised at all required forums but in vain. He said the GP Fund amount will soon be disbursed as the post has recently been occupied by an officer.