RAWALPINDI: City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) on Thursday assured about 3,000 pensioners that their arrears of 11 months would be cleared within 15 days.

Over 300 pensioners and municipal workers led by Municipal Workers Union’s former president Haji Farooq gathered at the Rawal Town Municipal Administration offices in Liaquat Bagh and held a rally towards the district courts.

The participants were chanting slogans against the provincial government and the local administration for not paying them their pensions for 11 months. However, when the rally reached Murree Road near Liaquat Sports Complex, officials of the CDGR stopped them.

Additional District Collector Nazia Parveen Sudhan, Assistant Commissioner Khalid Goraya and officials of the district finance and planning department requested the leaders of the protesters to end the rally and hold talks to resolve the issue.

But the workers staged a sit-in on Murree Road for more than two hours and blocked the traffic.

In the meantime, the CDGR officials assured the municipal workers that their issue would be resolve as soon as possible. However, the protesters sought a written assurance from the officials.

At last, the officials gave them the written assurance that the pensioners along with 300 government employees who retired during the last two years would be paid their dues in 15 days.

Talking to Dawn, Haji Farooq said the former employees were facing problems as they had not been given their pensions for 11 months due to mismanagement at the CDGR finance department.

“In the last two years, more than 300 employees retired from service and the local government failed to pay them the gratuity, pension and other benefits.”

He said the workers had been running between the DCO and the finance department offices to get information about their dues.

He said it was the second assurance given by the CDGR officials to pay the pensions and dues to the retired government employees.

“Under the Supreme Court ruling, the government is bound to pay pensions and liabilities to the former employees without any delay,” he said.

On the one hand the government is claiming that it is short of funds but on the other it is spending huge amounts on the construction of roads and streets, he said.

A senior official of the CDGR said the amount deducted from the salaries of the employees for pension was not properly maintained and used on other works.

He said the CDGR had sought the assistance of the provincial government to pay the pensions to the former employees but the Punjab finance department was yet to respond to the request.

When contacted, Additional District Collector Nazia Parveen Sudhan said the municipal workers had demanded an end to the inordinate delay in processing their cases and the payment of their pension.

“For administrative issues, the finance department has been asked to clear the pension cases without any delay,” she said.

As far as the release of pension is concerned, she said, the municipal workers had been assured that all-out efforts would be made to ensure the clearance of all the pension liabilities soon.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2016