ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that classifying pensioners as being old and new was permissible under the law and there was nothing un-Islamic in it.

The Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court in its judgment on the government appeals filed 10 years ago has set aside the Federal Shariat Court judgment in which it had declared classification of pensioners as old and new contrary to injunctions of Islam.

The FSC in its judgment on the petition of I.A. Sharwani, a retired civil servant and three others, in 1992 had ruled that the division between new and old pensioners was discriminatory.

"Irrespective of the date on which he retired and whenever there was any revision of salary and pension each one of the pensioners was entitled to get pension equal to the other in the same grade or category," the Federal Shariat Court had ruled.

The SC's Shariat Appellate Bench heard the federal government's appeal after 10 years and ruled on Friday: "The distinction between old pensioners and new pensioners could not be undone and each pensioner would get pay according to his entitlement under the law and this could not be termed as discriminatory.

The Supreme Court's Shariat Appellate Bench consisted of Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Tanvir Ahmad Khan, Justice Dr Allama Khalid Mahmood and Justice Dr Rashid Ahmad Jullundhari.

The apex court after examining the point whether the government servants of the same grade, who retired on different dates could claim the same amount of pension, held that it was not possible.

The SC held that the FSC judgment was of general nature highlighting pensioners' grievances arising from inflation. The SC held that pension was wealth and inequality in its distribution did not render it un-Islamic nor different rates could be termed discriminatory.

The SC ruled that quantum of pension is determined having taken into consideration the length of qualifying service, emoluments drawn and as per rates prescribed in relevant rules.

"The concept of Adl and Ehsan as enunciated in Islamic principles is not contrary to the rules of pension, as applicable to the retired servants of Pakistan."

The court ruled that as per rules, the pension of retired government servants was not to be recalculated on revision of pay and scale of serving employees. A benefit given to a person in employment cannot be claimed by pensioners as a matter of right.

The apex court's judgment, summed up the issue, holding: "In this view of the matter, if the pay scales of serving civil servants are revised, the civil servants who have by then already retired cannot have any legitimate grievance for notional revision of their pay scale for re-computing their pension amounts for any purpose as the pension amount is to be computed on the basis of the pension rules in force on the date of retirement of civil servants.

The pension rules contain formula as to the method of computation of pension amount with reference to the salary drawn by him till the date of retirement, and therefore there cannot be uniformity in the amount of pension among the civil servants despite having equal rank and equal length of service, if they retire not on one date but on different dates and in between such dates pay scales are revised."