Dr Arif Alvi has upheld the Wafaqi Mohtasib’s order that a university should pay the pension share to a 14-year serving professor.
Pensions are hard-earned rights earned by an employee’s long, continuous, and faithful service, and the deprivation or delay in granting these rights cannot be allowed, except under law.
Prof Dr Ali Asghar Chishti (the complainant) was a faculty member at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) from June 1985 to August 1999, after which he joined Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).
Despite obtaining a letter of liability in his favor, he did not receive a transfer of his pension shares after his retirement from AIOU in 2020. Later, he approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib (WM) for relief, and it granted his request as IIUI agreed to redress his grievance during the hearing. IIUI then filed a representation with the President against WM’s orders.
Based on a Supreme Court decision, the president upheld Mohtasib’s order directing IIUI to transfer the complainant’s pension share.
An employee earns a pension through long, continuous, and faithful service, not as a bounty. As per Article 9 of the Pakistani Constitution, an employee’s hard-earned right to livelihood was in the nature of “property”. Unless it is allowed by law, even part of this amount cannot be deprived.
Furthermore, the president cited another judgment of the Supreme Court issued on 21.02.2013, in which it was ruled that government departments, agencies, and officers must not delay retirement/pension payments in the future.
Due to IIUI’s concession of the complainant’s entitlement before the Wafaqi Mohtasib, the president concluded that it could not backtrack or seek reversal of the Mohtasib’s orders. he instructed IIUI to follow the Ombudsman’s order and rejected the representation.
