Haji Muhammad Ismail Memon, an advocate of Jati, District Thatta and a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, five years ago filed a public interest constitutional petition, under Article 199 of the Constitution, in the High Court of Sindh (D-1162/99) challenging the withholding, for well over a decade, by the government of Sindh of the payment of monthly maintenance allowances to the widows and orphans of government servants from the Sindh Government Servants Benevolent Fund (SGSBF), which is fully funded by serving government servants.

The respondents cited were the province of Sindh, the provincial finance secretary, the commissioner of Hyderabad Division who is the chairman of the Divisional Benevolent Fund Board and the administrative officer of the SGSBF.

On December 13, 2001, those good judges Zahid Kurban Alvi and Mushir Alam handed down their order:

"..... This petition has been filed under public interest litigation with a prayer that the respondents be directed to immediately release the funds and make payment of all outstanding dues that are payable to the widows and beneficiaries to whom such payments have not been made. This payment was supposed to be made out of the West Pakistan Government Servants Benevolent Fund and apparently respondent No.4 is the administrative officer dealing with the Government Benevolent Fund payment. This matter has been taken to the provincial ombudsman who has also given his findings in favour of the petitioners. It has been observed by the... Ombudsman that the benevolent fund amount is not dependent on budgetary grant as it is supposed to be the amount available in trust with the government, thus non-payment from this account is illegal and unfair.

"Comments have been filed by the respondents who have also issued a detailed list of those to whom payments have not been made and even those to whom a certain amount has been paid. We have noted from the detailed list that some persons have been paid up to date whereas [for] the other persons the amount has not been disbursed since the year 1985-86. This statement of accounts that has been provided to this court by the office of the Advocate-General, Sindh, is a poor reflection of the state of affairs of a government. The amount that is due and payable to the widows should be paid forthwith. Learned Additional-Advocate General has stated that because of financial liquidity they are unable to make the payments, as they are totally dependent on the federal government for the release of the money.

This petition is, therefore, being disposed of with a direction to the provincial government to effect payment to all the widows affected within six... months of the order of this court. These widows should be made personally [present] in order to make the payment, and if they are non-residents of Karachi then the amount should be made available through the district coordinating officers and town coordinating officers of the area where the widows are residents. Copy of this order should be sent to the ministry of finance as well as secretary, finance, Government of Sindh and secretary S&GAD."

Needless to say, our governments being what they are, the Order has been ignored.

The people suffer.

Advocate Memon on December 30, 2003, addressed the District and Sessions Judge at Hyderabad, again seeking 'justice'. He informed him, inter alia, that "the position on the ground is that despite a lapse of over two years as against six months actually allowed by their lordships, hardly 14 per cent of the dues payable to the widows has been released." He recounted how the bureaucracy "is still making the payments 'on a pick and choose basis' to please their political masters...". He 'respectfully prayed' that the judge direct the district coordination officer at Hyderabad to produce bank account statements, cash books and ledger accounts of each widow and grantee of the benevolent fund so that he may be able to ascertain what has been paid and what has not been paid.

Another injustice, similar in nature, is the discriminatory division of civil service pensioners into 'new' and 'old' pensioners', the pensions paid to the 'old' pensioners having not been indexed with those of the later retirees of equivalent rank or grade. Such has been the case since the early 1980s. A group of pensioners went to the federal ombudsman seeking 'justice' and he recommended that the pensions paid to the 'old' retirees be brought in line with their 'new' compatriots. 'Pious' President General Ziaul Haq rejected the recommendation and in 1985-86 issued a notification upholding the 'old' and 'new' division (only pensions of the judiciary are indexed).

The 'old' pensioners then went to the Federal Shariat Court where they raised the point "whether government servants of the same grade, who retired on different dates, could claim the same amount of pension." In October 1992 the court ruled that the division of pensioners into 'new' and 'old' was indeed discriminatory, that the date of retirement was not relevant, and that whenever there was any revision of salary and pension, each pensioner was entitled to be paid a pension equal to others in the same grade and category.

The government, quite naturally, immediately appealed to the Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court. The court took its time to ponder the matter and last week, on January 9, set aside the order of the Federal Shariat Court, holding that a provision of law could not be challenged, that the Shariat Court judgment was of a general nature highlighting grievances of the 'old' pensioners which arise from inflation, that such a liberal interpretation of pension laws and rules would render them ineffective and that it was neither permissible nor possible. The pension related law, as it stands, was neither inconsistent with the law as laid down by the Quran and Sunnah nor with the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights.

The 'old' pensioners suffer on. They will have to put up with discrimination, with their 'old' pensions, and lump it for however many years they have left on this earth. As it now stands, to cite but a few examples as an illustration, an 'old' federal secretary receives a pension of Rs.9,600 per month and the 'new' Rs.26,450; an 'old' army brigadier receives Rs8,600, a 'new' Rs.22,425; an 'old' lt-colonel is paid Rs.7,000 whilst his 'new' equivalent nets Rs.19,550; a lowly army captain thrives on Rs.3,500 and his 'new' equivalent is just somewhat better off at Rs.11,500.

Then we come to a truly tragic case, possibly involving pensions. On December 7, 2003, the decomposed bodies of 70-year old Professor Ghazi Khan Jakharani and his 65-year old wife were found in their house in Gulshan-i-Akbar, Malir. The bodies were taken to the JPMC for autopsies and reportedly it was found that both had cancer. It was estimated that they had been dead for fifteen days. Professor Jakhrani taught at the Jamia Millia College at Malir and after his retirement, for as long as his health held, gave private tuition. The couple had no children. According to people living in the vicinity, the story goes that the two actually died of starvation because of long delays in the payment of Dr Jakhrani's pension and other dues owing to him by the education department. Whatever the cause of their death, for sure they died in painful and miserable circumstances.

Moving on from pensions to the antediluvian practice of karo-kiri, the misery and suffering of Shaista Almani of Ghotki continues. After being threatened by her tribal feudals with a sentence of death for having married a man of her choosing against their wishes, having to flee to Islamabad, being disowned by her relatives and dumped by her husband, she sought final refuge in Karachi where the law enforcement agencies were ordered to ensure that she was kept alive. She was housed initially in a hospital and then sent to a women's police station. On January 11, she was handed over by the police into the 'custody' of Sindh's minister for population welfare, Imtiaz Sheikh (once upon a time Jam Sadiq Ali's chief henchman), who was photographed handing over to her, with his blessings, the keys of a flat and papers appointing her as a Grade 9 officer in the Sindh Welfare Department.

On January 16, British citizen Altaf Bhai of London self-exiled leader of the MQM, entered the fray. He 'threatened' to abandon the government and annul his political alliance with the ruling clique, unless the tribal feudals who seek Shaista's blood were arrested within 48 hours.

Times are certainly changing; Imtiaz Sheikh and Altaf Bhai are now champions of the persecuted underdog, raising their voices against violence and murder, with both of which they are well acquainted.

The president general should remember what he was taught at school by old Father Petronius and other men of the cloth: that no government can survive on the misery of the people - misery inflicted by the government itself.

e-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk