FAISALABAD, Aug 10: Punjab Accountant-General Wazir Ali Qureshi said on Saturday that reforms were under way to expedite the process of deciding the pension cases of the retired government servants.

He was presiding over a meeting of the pension cases disposal committee held here to review action on the pending pension cases of retired employees of different government departments.

Mr Qureshi said that certain entries would be added into the service book and it would be treated as pension papers of the official concerned. In this way, the pensioners would not be required to produce ‘No demand certificate’.

The AG expressed concern over the fact that pension cases of 14 employees of the irrigation department had been lying pending for many years. He said that he personally got eight of these cases cleared recently. The remaining cases were yet to be decided which was a great injustice to the helpless retired officials.

Refusing to consider the explanation of the department in this regard, the AG said that he would recommend to the Punjab Irrigation Secretary to take action against the officials who were responsible for the delay.

The meeting reviewed pending pension cases of the employees of education, food, agriculture, public health engineering, Ayub Research Institute, irrigation, revenue, Tehsil Municipal Administration and other departments of Faisalabad, Jhang and T.T. Singh districts.

It also reviewed pace of pending inquires against different employees.

The AG said that under the new local government system, district pension cases disposal committee would review the cases of retired officials of different departments.

He directed all the DDOs to get prepared the lists and pension papers of the officials of their departments concerned who were due to retire during the next six months and send the same to the district accounts offices concerned.

He directed the district accounts officers to keep constant contact with the DDOs concerned for the preparation of pension cases of government servants. If any pension case was delayed without any solid reason, the DAO concerned would be held responsible, he warned.

He said that in future, in addition to reviewing the complaints of GP Fund cases, the affected pensioners would also be asked to attend the meeting to hear their plea.

The district accounts officers of Faisalabad, Jhang and Toba Tek Singh besides S&GAD Deputy Secretary (Rules) Shahid Hussain also attended the meeting.

Later, Wazir Ahmad Qureshi held an open kutchery at the DCO office. He listened to the complaints of the government employees and issued instructions to the DAOs concerned for their redressal.

He said that with a view to keep the GP Fund accounts up-to-date, a coordinated strategy was being adopted. With the implementation of the strategy under a phased programme, the GP Fund amounts would be put together.

He said that efforts were being made to provide maximum relief to the retired government officials. “This could only be possible if maximum cooperation is extended by the government departments to the district accounts officers concerned,” he said.