ISLAMABAD: The federal ombudsman has solved a 15-year-old pension case filed by the widow of a Wapda employee who died of electrocution.

Zubaida Bibi, the widow of Aurangzeb, a resident of Abbottabad, filed a complaint with the ombudsman against the delay in the grant of family pension/gratuity. She said her husband was electrocuted while performing duty on August 28, 1999.

She approached the Wapda office in Lahore a number of times for the redressal of her grievance.

However, the authority did not finalise her claim on the plea that the widow was seeking the family pension on the basis of his late husband’s nine years and three months service whereas the qualifying service for a pension was at least 10 years.

The ombudsman directed Wapda to condone the nine months deficiency in the qualifying service for pension and pay to the widow other dues along with Rs50,000 per year as a compensation for the inordinate delay in finalisation of her case.

It may be noted that the finance division had earlier clarified that, “The competent authority may condone a deficiency of more than six months but less than a year in a pension case subject to the conditions that the officer died in service or retired under circumstances beyond his control, such as the invalidation or the abolition of his post.”

The ombudsman also recommended disciplinary action against the officials concerned at the Wapda office, Lahore, for their negligence in the redressal of the widow’s case on time.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014