ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry has withheld a notification of an increase in special additional pension and certain allowances for pensioners announced by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his budget speech.

He had announced an increase in orderly allowance and special additional pension of junior government officials from Rs7,000 per month to Rs12,000 per month in addition to overall 7.5 per cent increase in pensions and salaries of government employees from July 1.

The minister had also announced 25 per cent increase in the medical allowance of pensioners and government employees.

Officials in the regulation wing of the ministry said the notifications of the increase in pensions and salaries had been issued but approval had not been granted by the top leadership of the ministry for the increase in special additional pension and orderly allowance.

Earlier, a high-ranking official of the ministry had said the notification of the increase in special additional pension and orderly allowance would be issued in the second week of July to enable pensioners to receive increased pensions for the month.

I. N. Abbasi, a former official of the ministry, alleged that the ministry was backing out of its commitment made in parliament.

He alleged that the government was committing locus poenitentiae by taking away interests created under legal means. Once conferred, vested rights could not be taken away as it would amount to violation of fundamental human rights, he argued.

A former secretary of finance said withholding a financial benefit to a large number of people after an announcement in parliament was tantamount to expropriation of public funds.

“Either there was no allocation in the budget and parliament and people were misled through a misstatement or pensioners have been denied benefit of an official announcement as an afterthought,” he said.

According to a notification issued by the ministry, the government has increased by 7.5 per cent pension of pensioners of the civil government, armed forces and civil armed forces from July 1.

Twenty per cent increase in pension allowed in July 2012 to those retiring after July 1, 2015 has been scrapped.

But 15 per cent increase in pension allowed in July 2010, 15pc in July 2011 and 10pc each in July 2013 and July 2014 will be admissible to new pensioners who will retire after June 30, 2015.

The notification said the increase in pension would not be admissible on special additional pension allowed in lieu of pre-retirement orderly allowance of a driver or an orderly.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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