Pensioners’ fight for rights close to conclusion
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi last week retold Pakistan’s economic success journey under a democratic government to global investors at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Devos. Back home, however, a debate seems to be stirring on the quality of growth and governance.
Globally the issue of wealth and income disparity has gained traction.
The Oxfam report released recently, that showed economic returns were increasingly concentrated at the top, informed discussions on the theme ‘creating a shared future in a fractured world’ at the WEF.
An argument was made based on the WEF’s recently released Inclusive Development Index 2018, that aside from GDP there are multiple metrics that can be used to determine the success of economic policy and institutional strength in a way that can contribute simultaneously to higher growth and wider social participation.
This Index reflects more closely the criteria by which people evaluate their countries’ economic progress. Out of 74 emerging economies Pakistan ranks 47 on the index. (See Figure 1 and Table 1)
Like elsewhere in Pakistan, the stance of the government towards the equity dimension of growth appears to be critical for the future of democracy and stability.
There have been several cases (Zainab, Naqeeb and Intezar) during the closing month indicative of the trajectory of events in the country going forward.
The public patience to tolerate the mistreatment of vulnerable and the inaction of responsible authorities is running thin. Even the fragmentation of society has not stopped civic activism for a just cause. In the current environment all that is needed is a spark to let loose public wrath for economic injustice.
An extreme example of the systemic exclusion of the voiceless from sharing the growth benefits in Pakistan is the recent case of ex-bank employees who have been fighting for fair pension in courts for over a decade
An extreme example of the systemic exclusion of the voiceless from sharing the growth benefits in Pakistan is the recent case of ex-bank employees who have been fighting for fair pension in courts for over a decade.
A little after President Mamnoon Hussain’s remarks in favour of pensioners in 2016, the Supreme Court took Suo Motu notice of the issue. The final decision in the pension case is expected in the ongoing week.
According to details, four out of five of the country’s biggest banks have a pension policy. MCB switched to a provident fund scheme to contain its long term liability and the National Bank of Pakistan revised pension rates upwards.
But after privatisation the other three banks: UBL, HBL and Allied Bank Limited (ABL) froze its inherited employees’ pension in 1991 and have not revised it since. As a result retirees, including officers, have been drawing a monthly pension in the range of Rs800 to Rs2,500 whereas the salaries of the top tier executives run in millions.
A member of the legal team representing the pensioners confirmed to Dawn that on January 18 the Supreme Court reserved its decision in the case. It gave banks 15 days to draw a scheme providing relief to retirees with retrospective effect.
Sharing the development of the case’s proceedings a source privy to the whole affair said the bench, which included Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, during recent proceedings was visibly irritated over the apathy of banks’ management and dismissed the plea of legality of the current arrangement.
“Seema Kamil, President UBL was reprimanded by justices in court when she tried to defend the banks viewpoint,” a lawyer present during the concluding proceedings privately told Dawn. “She contested the perception that the salary of banks’ presidents was over Rs10 million per month and stressed that it was hardly one-third the amount (Rs3m) on average,” he shared.