The Punjab government has issued a notification for the pension of retired government employees from July 1, 2024 under the new amendment act.
Accordingly, the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974 has been amended with reforms. After this, government employees will be given pension and leave in lieu (leave encashment) under the new act in future.
According to the draft notification, provincial and federal government employees will be entitled to a gross pension based on 70% of the average pension earned during 24 months of service before retirement.
For voluntary retirement, a government employee can apply for retirement after 25 years of service.
However, the employee will be liable for a reduction rate of three percent per annum in the gross pension based on the number of complete months from the date of retirement to the date of pension. Such reduction in gross pension shall be limited to 20%.
Voluntary retirement in the case of Armed Forces and Civil Armed Forces shall be applicable only if retirement is sought or granted prior to the prescribed rank service.
According to the spokesman of the Punjab Finance Department, the new amendment act related to pension will be implemented from this year itself. The Punjab government has issued a notification in this regard.
The All Government Employees Grand Alliance has rejected these amendments and demanded full restoration of leave encashment and other allowances.
The employees also staged a protest in front of the PML-N headquarters in Model Town.
According to Zia Chaudhry, a former budget officer of the Department of Public Health Engineering, ‘with the new amendment act, the government has made it a law to provide pension to retired employees under the EOBI formula on the federal model. The term has also been reduced from life to ten years.
How will you get pension in the new law?
The draft Punjab Civil Servants Reforms Amendment Bill 2024 prepared by the Punjab Government states that ‘the net pension calculated at the time of retirement shall be called Baseline Pension. Any increase in pension will be paid on the base pension, each increase being maintained as a separate amount. Unless the Federal Government decides to revise and approve any additional pension benefits.
“The Baseline Pension shall be reviewed by the Pay and Pension Committee every three years provided that the existing pension of the existing pensioners on the date of promulgation of these amendments shall be treated as the Baseline Pension.”
General family pension shall be admissible to the remaining members of the family for a maximum period of 10 years, after the death or incapacity of the spouse. In case of disabled/special children of a pensioner, normal family pension will be admissible for the lifetime of such children. In case of entitled children, ordinary family pension will be admissible till the age of 10 years or 21 years whichever is later.
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
Special Family Pension will be admissible to the remaining members of the family up to 25 years after the death or incapacity of the spouse/first recipient.
The rate of such pension for pensioners is increased to 50% for all ranks of Armed Forces/Civil Armed Forces.
In case of re-employment after retirement, where a Government pensioner after the age of 60 years is re-employed/appointed in public service whether on permanent or temporary basis or in any mode of employment, the pensioner shall have the option of retaining his pension or drawing the salary of the said employment during such employment.
The annual increase in pension will be given at 80% of the average inflation rate of the last two years.
For this purpose, the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) announced by the State Bank of Pakistan will be used as a reference.
Employee protections
Talking to Independent Urdu, Zia Chaudhry said that the new reforms in the pension law will not make much difference. Because the government will invest by deducting from the salary of the employees, now instead of fixed pension, they will get according to the profit. Earlier, pension was fixed.’
He said that ‘if leave encashment and other allowances are restored to government employees, there will not be much objection to this amendment act.’
In this regard, government employees also held a protest outside the main office of PML-N in Lahore against the new leave encashment reforms on Thursday.
Spokesman All Employees Alliance Rana Muhammad Liaquat while talking to Independent Urdu said that ‘Privatization of government schools/handover to contractors, has registered a protest against amendment of leave encashment law. If the demands are not accepted, they will call for protests across the province.’
According to Rana Liaquat, ‘Our demands are that refund of additional income tax on salaried class, abolition of non-teaching duties of data entry on socio-economic survey of teachers. Upgradation of SSE teachers, lady health works, class 4 lab attendant, computer lab in charge, reader, teachers and others should be made permanent. Issuance of time scale on the pattern of other provinces, issuance of computer allowance for computer teachers, deficiencies in the service rolls of teachers and other employees should be eliminated.
He said that we also reject the new pension amendment law from the government. Most of our allowances have been abolished, especially after the 70% reduction in leave encashment by the caretaker government, taxes have also been imposed. What is left?’
