PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has disposed of 58 petitions, mostly of present and former government employees, against the recovery from their salaries or pensions of the financial assistance received by them under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) despite ‘not being eligible’ for it.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel declared that as the petitioners had an alternate remedy available, they should first approach the relevant BISP zonal office through grievance petitions, which should be positively decided by the relevant respondents or officials within 60 days.

“Till such time the grievance petitions/applications/objections have not been decided, recovery from the salaries/pensions of all the petitioners shall be put on hold,” the bench ordered.

Directs them to take up matter with BISP

The petitioners, including Muhabat Shah and dozens of others, have said that the deduction started from their salaries under the direction of the chairperson, BISP Government of Pakistan, was against the law.

They claimed that they were duly eligible at the relevant time according to the criteria for the grant of the monthly stipend.

The bench ruled that the jurisdiction of the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution of Pakistan could only be invoked where there was no adequate remedy provided by law.

It further observed that in the instant case, the counsel appearing for the respondent-BISP had referred to section 21 of the BISP Act, 2010, which was more efficacious in the given circumstances of the case.

“As such, in the absence of relevant record regarding each petitioner, we direct all the petitioners to submit their individual grievance petitions/ applications/ objections before the respondents under Section 21 of ‘The Act’ at their respective zonal offices and the respondents are also directed to decide the grievances of the petitioners on the receipt of grievance petitions/ objections/ applications positively within a period of sixty (60) days.

It is pertinent to mention that the Accountant General’s office had launched a recovery drive in the province against government employees who, either themselves or through their family members, received financial assistance under the BISP.

The action was taken after verification of beneficiary data through government service records and the database of the National Database and Registration Authority, which revealed that a large number of serving public employees or their households had benefitted from the poverty alleviation scheme meant for low-income and vulnerable families.

The petitioners mostly claimed that financial assistance had been received by their spouses after due verification and inclusion in the programme through Nadra records.

Deputy attorney general Akber Yousaf Khalil appeared for the federal government along with BISP legal adviser Khurram Mehmood Qureshi, its deputy director Mujahid Khan Lohani and assistant director (legal) Jamal Abdul Nasir. Several lawyers appeared for the petitioners.

The bench, in its 10-page judgement, observed that before it there cases of numerous petitioners, serving or retired from different departments, however, the requisite details about their employment status, registration with the BISP and other details, necessary for processing of their cases, were missing.

It observed that in one of the petitions there were as many as 19 petitioners, however, no details had been provided as to whether they were employees of government departments, private individuals or retried employees.

The BISP’s legal adviser also said that while preparing comments in some of these petitions, they had also faced the same situation.

He argued that in terms of section 21 of the BISP Act petitioners had alternate remedy of submitting grievance petitions and if any such applications were submitted, it would be decided strictly in accordance with law.

The adviser, however, contended that each petitioner and beneficiary may submit their separate applications providing necessary details and that their grievance would be accordingly heard strictly in accordance with law.

He said that there were three zonal offices of the BISP in KP at Peshawar, Mardan and Dera Ismail Khan and the locals of the respective areas could submit such grievance petitions before the said zonal offices for its consideration.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2026