RAWALPINDI: More than 3,500 pensioners of the local government on Friday warned of protest if their pension, which has been due since February, was not released within a week.

Hundreds of pensioners daily visit the offices of District Coordination Officer and Executive District Officer Finance but to no avail as the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) has run out of funds.

“Under the government rule and directives of the Supreme Court, the government should stop releasing funds for the development work and pay the pension to the retired employees of the local government,” said Tahir Mehmood Khan, a pensioner while talking to Dawn.

He said retired in May but the finance department failed to give gratuity and other dues despite repeated requests to them. “I have no option but to contact the court or stage protest against the government’s attitude towards pensioners,” he said.

He said the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should take notice of mismanagement in the finance department.

Ghulam Muhammad Naz, a pensioner, said he was shuttling between the DCO and the EDO offices to get the pension but nobody was attending to their problems.

“Under the law, it is my right to get the pension after serving the government for more than 35 years and,” he said.

A senior official of the CDGR told Dawn that the local government needed Rs450 million to pay the pension, but the CDGR had no funds to pay to pensioners. He said the pension money saved in National Saving was not enough to pay to the retired employees. “We have sent a request to the finance department seeking grant-in-aid so that we could clear the pensioners’ dues,” he added.

He said they had come across to a similar problem in 2011, but at that time the CDGR had borrowed Rs70 million from Rawal Town Municipal Administration to pay the pensions as more than 2,000 pensioners were former employee of erstwhile Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation.

However, he said that this time, the Rawal Town was not willing to pay the money at the cost of the development works.

The CDGR official said the local government wanted to get the money from the provincial government.

District Coordination Officer Talat Mehmood Gondal and Executive District Officer (Finance) Atif Raza were not available for comment on the issue despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn October 22nd, 2016

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