Pensioners’ plight

Letter September 06, 2022
Pensioners’ plight

KARACHI:

The main function of EOBI is to protect the welfare of retired workers and ensure that pensioners get their legitimate rights. However, in a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees, the pensioners’ rights were ignored. We believe that even the chairperson was kept in the dark in the name of actuarial valuation and shortage of funds.

Recently, EOBI gave an additional honorarium equal to one month’s salary for so-called high performance, an 15% increase in salaries, an increase in the pension of the employees, and other financial benefits. On the other hand, the old age pensioners of EOBI have long been making a legitimate demand for an increase in their pension of up to Rs25,000 per month. Even though the government increases the pension of its retired employees annually, the EOBI pensioners are still given meagre pensions. These people spent their youth serving the country but are now compelled to live miserable life in their old age. Although EOBI has assets and capital worth trillions of rupees, the funds and resources are not used efficiently.

Despite constant requests for action, our calls have fallen on deaf ears. It is becoming impossible for pensioners to bear the burden of the constant price hikes. I humbly request the federal government, the Minister of Overseas Pakistanis, and the Chairperson of EOBI to kindly increase the pension equivalent to the existing minimum wage. The government must also restore the matching grant to enable EOBI to increase pensions immediately.

Azfar Shamim

Karachi

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2022.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.