To cover up departmental failure, complex procedures are specified for law-abiding pensioners to satisfy seniors
RAWALPINDI: The media has been reporting about ghost pensioners but never about exemplary punishments handed to the culprits. To cover up departmental failure, complex procedures are specified for law-abiding pensioners to satisfy seniors. For example, I have been receiving a pension since 1987 and all certified relevant documents are available with the departments concerned but I was required to follow a complex procedure to change over to online pensions.
I am now also required to submit life certificates twice a year signed by the specified officer. It is mind-boggling to imagine the plight of some million pensioners, including the sick and handicapped, looking for willing officers to sign the life certificate twice a year. I appeal to the relevant authorities to kindly consider the continuation of the life certificate signed by the bank manager concerned, as has been done for decades, and adopt strict departmental measures to eliminate ghost pensioners.
M Akram Niazi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2016.
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