ISLAMABAD, July 25: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Federal Service Tribunal decision that those federal government employees who retired from service between June 16, 1994 and May 23, 1996, would be entitled to inclusion of personal allowance (Secretariat Allowance) for the purpose of computing the pension payable to them.

The apex court’s judgment would apply to 2,021 former government officials, and the total financial impact on the federal government would come to Rs23 million.

The SC bench, comprising Justice Munir A. Sheikh, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Abdul Hameed Dogar, dismissed the federal government’s appeal that it be allowed to deprive the benefit of computation of personal allowance towards pensionable emoluments to the petitioners.

The president had promulgated the Secretariat Allowance Ordinance, 2000, saying that the secretariat allowance, which was transformed into personal allowance, was rescinded from July 1, 1988.

Some pensioners filed a petition in the Federal Service Tribunal for the grant of Personal Allowance (Secretariat Allowance) towards the pensionable emoluments. The Federal Service Tribunal accepted their petitions which was challenged by the federal government through secretary, ministry of finance.

The federal government, through Sardar Mohammad Aslam, deputy Attorney General, opposed the inclusion of personal allowance towards pension on the grounds that the ordinance was declaratory in nature and thus had retrospective operation, meaning thereby the allowance had been rescinded from July 1, 1988. Under the ordinance, personal allowance cannot be included towards pensionable emoluments.

The respondents pleaded that they were being discriminated against and brought to the court’s notice that through an office memorandum, issued in September, 2001, the president sanctioned a scheme which included grant of personal allowance till December 12, 2001.

The respondents held that it was sheer discrimination that on the one hand the ordinance had rescinded the Personal Allowance but on the other, through an office memorandum, financial benefits were offered to the serving employees.

The respondents also placed on record the copy of a letter showing that over Rs100 million have been drawn by the serving bureaucrats taking benefit of the office memorandum. They also challenged the statement of the federal government that grant of pensionable benefits would seriously affect the financial position of the government by showing payslips of Finance Secretary, Mohammad Younas Khan, who has now become Auditor General of Pakistan, Waqar Masood Khan, now Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Abdul Rauf Malik, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Pervez Saleem, Senior Joint Secretary, showing that they all were receiving the personal allowance.