Zubair Qureshi Islamabad
President Dr. Arif Alvi has directed the Pakistan Post Office Department to pay Rs 1.35 million to a retired employee as the amount was wrongly deducted from his pensionary benefits by the Postmaster General Punjab, Lahore (the Agency) on account of a mistake in employee’s date of birth.
The president said that the employee continued to serve four more years in his department after his retirement on the orders of the competent authority and had a bonafide belief of receiving the salary for the period.
He added that depriving the employee of pensionary benefits and deducting the salary paid in performance of his duties was unlawful and maladministration had been established.
The president gave these remarks while accepting a representation filed by the complainant Muhammad Yousaf against the decision of the WafaqiMohtasib declaring that the agency had rightly deducted the amount from his pensionary benefits.
The complainant had alleged that he served for 38 years with the Agency and he retired in 2016 but his department had wrongly recorded his date of birth due to which his retirement year was changed to 2012. Subsequently, he overworked for additional four years but a huge amount of Rs 1.35 million was unjustifiably deducted in lieu of the salary paid to him for four years from his pensionary benefits. Feeling aggrieved, he approached the WafaqiMohtasib which passed the orders in the agency’s favour.
Afterwards, the complainant raised the matter with the President by filing a representation against WafaqiMohtasib’s decision.
