PESHAWAR, Jan 30: A number of retired class-IV employees of the defunct Municipal Corporation Peshawar are running from pillar to post to get their retirement benefits, but to no avail.

Interviews with some such employees and official sources revealed that town-1 of the Peshawar city district government had not paid post-retirement monetary benefits to any of its employees since coming into being in 2001.

The question as to who should actually pay millions of rupees to the retired employees — those of the district government or the town municipal administration — has, apparently, put the case of those employees in jeopardy who retired in Sept 2001 or after.

A sense of uncertainty has also gripped serving employees who are close to reaching the age of superannuation.

All those employees of the cash-strapped TMA who retired after Sept 2001 have neither been paid commutation nor pension.

The matter of accepting the responsibility of paying post-retirement monetary benefits to the retired employees is apparently an issue hampering working relationship between the district government and the TMA.

In a majority of the cases, according to official documents available with Dawn, the retired employees have been waiting to get their commutation fund and pension money for well over 15 months.

“Where should I go? I have contacted every officer and political leader who matters in the new setup, but to no avail,” said Mosam Khan, 47, who served as a Mali in the Municipal Corporation, Peshawar (MCP), for 27 years.

Mosam Khan, father of four daughters and two sons, availed himself of one-year leave prior to retirement (LPR) on Nov 1, 2001, and got retired on Nov 1, 2002.

He said his written applications to Azam Afridi, Nazim of the Peshawar City District Government and Haroon Bilour, Nazim of Town-1 Tehsil Administration, went unanswered. Even his meetings with the two could not win him his due right.

Said Raheem, 62, another retired employee, is waiting to get his commutation fund and monthly pension since Sept, 2001 — the month he reached the age of superannuation after serving 28 years as a watchman in the MCP.

Talking to this correspondent, he complained that he frequently visited the authorities concerned almost every week since his retirement but without any ray of hope emerging.

“Initially, I used to visit the accounts office almost every day. But now I approach them once a week,” said the bearded Rahim, who lives in Chuaa Gujjar, a village on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Among the affected retired employees who are waiting to get their voice heard are watchmen, sweepers, malis, peons, drivers, assistants to tubewell operators, bahishtis, lorry fillers (fire brigade staff) and other sanitation staff, according to official documents.

Fifty of the affected retired employees were on the payroll of Town-1 — the newly setup entity mostly comprising areas previously under the jurisdiction of (the now defunct) Municipal Corporation, Peshawar.

Besides, there are 11 more employees whose retirement cases are in the process and they would be relieved from service shortly.

According to official sources, the town-1 administration has taken the stand that commutation fund and monthly pension should be paid by the city district government.

“The city district government is bound to shoulder this responsibility because it has not shifted the major income heads of the defunct Municipal Corporation, Peshawar, to us,” said Haroon Bilour, Nazim, town-1 of the Peshawar city district.

He said the town-1 was in no position to pay around Rs20m to the retired employees.

“While they (district government) are keeping the income of the defunct MCP, the abandoned entity’s liabilities have been transferred to us (town-1),” said Haroon, adding, “we can’t pay the commutation and pension, for this is beyond our capacity.”

He said the town-1 administration obtained a loan of Rs8m from the city district government some 15 days back to pay the salaries of its staff for the month of January.

The affected employees said they did not have the required funds to take their case to the courts.

The office-bearers of the United Municipal Workers’ Union, CBA, Peshawar, when contacted, said their written appeals, in this respect, to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and provincial governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah remained unattended.

“No action was taken on any of the appeals,” said Malik Naveed, the CBA chief.

The minister for local government and rural development, said the sources, has constituted a committee to look into the matter.