ISLAMABAD: Around 200 retired employees and widows of employees of Pakistan Health Research Council (PHRC) have been denied their right to receive pension since the last two and half years.

Minister of National Health Services (NHS) Abdul Qadir Patel, while talking to Dawn, said that he will look into the matter and will direct the NHS secretary to resolve this issue at the earliest.

It is worth mentioning that retired employees of PHRC, formerly called Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC), have been running from pillar to post to receive their pensions but to no avail. The PMRC was established in 1962 and later the Ministry of Science and Technology took control of it from the Ministry of Health in 1985. Retired employees continued to get their pensions till the year 2017. However, employees who retired after January 2019 have not been paid pensions.

The widow of an employee Mohammad Shafi, in a written letter to Dawn, stated that her husband was a driver and later died.

The pension was being paid since 1984 but has been discontinued since Jan 1, 2020; employees contacted Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the court decided the case in favour of employees in April 2022 but PHRC is still hesitant to implement the decision of the apex court, she wrote in the letter.

She has urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Mr Patel to look into the issue and play their role towards addressing it as it has become impossible to survive without pension.

“These are the reasons why I am sitting in the health ministry. I will ask the secretary health to submit a report over the issue and will do whatever would be possible for me,” Mr Patel said.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2022