Senate body to probe issue of ‘ghost pensioners’

AGP denies existence of fake recipients; govt bank also issues clarification

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has convened a meeting next week to investigate the National Bank of Pakistan’s (NBP) alleged claim of 600,000 ghost pensioners annually drawing billions of rupees from the exchequer.

The office of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), however, denies the existence of ghost pensioners. Moreover, the NBP states that the government bank never made the claim in the first place.

Nevertheless, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation has decided to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the ‘ghost pensioners scandal’, according to a statement issued by the office of Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, the committee’s chairman.



The committee’s meeting on September 3 will be attended by officials from federal, provincial and other departments dealing with pension matters, as well as officials from the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues, the Controller General of Accounts, the State Bank of Pakistan and the Ministry of Finance.

In order to conduct a thorough investigation, the Senate body shall have a briefing on the pension structure in the country, the number of pensioners in the past 15 years, their departments and the monthly pension being drawn.

In a previous meeting of the standing committee, NBP Senior Executive Vice President Mudassir Khan had purportedly revealed that the government bank had identified 600,000 ghost pensioners.

He is believed to have said that the ghost pensioners were receiving pensions from the military, the federal government and the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI).

However, the AGP’s office has denied the existence of ghost pensioners, saying that the total number of civilian pensioners was less than 375,000. Military, provincial government and EOBI pensioners were not taken into account.

Senator Mandviwalla also seeks details of the number of accounts closed after the deaths of pensioners and their spouses.

Information on the percentage of pensioners increasing or decreasing, the criteria for pension disbursement and the role and responsibility of the relevant departments after retirement of their employees have also been obtained.

The senator said Pakistan needed a modern and transparent pension system. “The committee shall assist all the departments and provide recommendations to develop a credible system.”

Meanwhile, regarding the reports published in various newspapers on August 19 that quoted the NBP on reduction in the number of pensioners, the bank claimed that its representative never mentioned any ‘ghost pensioners’ or the amount supposedly being drawn by them.

In a clarification, the NBP said the bank had initiated automation of its pension system in 2012 and adopted new procedures for processing pension payments, adding that pensions were disbursed only to verified pensioners.

“The impression given in the newspaper reports that some people who were not genuine had received pensions is incorrect.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2015.