LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Sahiwal food department to complete pension papers of a deceased employee within a week while the accountant general of Punjab was also asked to release and start pension to the legal heir within one week.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Ayesha A Malik took serious notice of the callous and ugly attitude of the food department for not completing the pension case of its retired employee, food inspector Muhammad Ibrahim, who retired in 2001 but after about 21 years his pension papers were not completed.

Ibrahim filed the petition in 2016 and passed away during the pendency of his case.

He was appointed as food grain supervisor in Sahiwal district and was posted on Aug 15, 1974. During his tenure of service, the petitioner was dismissed from service in 1992 and penalty of recovery of some amount was also imposed on him.The Punjab Service Tribunal reinstated the petitioner, however, upheld the penalty of the recovery. The reinstatement of the petitioner had been upheld by the Supreme Court however, he was not reinstated into service by the department.

The petitioner launched a legal battle for his reinstatement and then for pensionary benefits from pillar to post but could not succeed.

Advocate Hafiz Tariq Nasim, who represented the petitioner as pro bono, contended before the Supreme Court that the service tribunal could not dismiss the petitioner’s appeal in ignorance of rule 1.8 of the Punjab Pension Rules and that too without application of independent judicial mind.

He argued that the food department at maximum could make the recovery of the amount from the gratuity and pensionary benefits of the petitioner but could not deprive him of pension and gratuity.

The bench allowed the petition and directed the department to complete the process to release the pension of the deceased petitioner within one week.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2022