THE management of the National Bank of Pakistan recently approved and awarded multimillion increases in pay package of its working staff, officers and executives with effect from 2018-19.

The bank earned more than Rs90billion profit in 2018. It seems that the increase in salary and other facilities of employees has liberally been approved by the president and the chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank on the basis of the current earning.

This award and increase in salary have been appreciated by the employees with zeal which also enabled them a handsome increase in their pension benefits at the time of their retirement.

While awarding this pay package to the bank staff, the president of the bank ignored the retired employees of the bank who were once the backbone of the financial development of the bank. The management of the bank has already divided the pension rules for the retirees and put them into various categories.

Simultaneously, the changes in the pension formula by the bank, have drastically affected the retirees especially those falling under category No. 2 retired in between 1999 to 2003.

Every year more than 8,000 retired employees desperately wait for an increase in their pension, but they are disappointed.

Our pension is peanuts compared to the employees who retired after 2010 — who are entitled to 50 per cent of their pay.

We even took the case to court. After an initial decision in our favour, the bank filed a review appeal and the case is still in court. It has been more than a year.

I request all those concerned to look into this matter immediately.

Mahmood Ahmad Minhas
Lahore

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2019