There is no post-retirement medical facility guaranteed for the KMC’s retired employees.
KARACHI: It pains me a lot to see the retirees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) experiencing hardships in accessing medical facilities because of their meagre financial resources. There is no post-retirement medical facility guaranteed for the KMC’s retired employees. Generally, lower scale employees after retirement suffer the most when it comes to paying their medical bills. Being cash-strapped, the only option they have is to depend on government hospitals. The conditions prevailing in most state-owned hospitals are there for all to see.
Employees in lower scales can get their medical expenses reimbursed but this process is an extremely difficult and time-consuming one. The claimants are generally shown the door by those officers who have the authority to approve the reimbursements.
The KMC retirees are also senior citizens. They have given the best years of their lives serving the city in particular, and the country in general. They deserve our respect and their financial miseries should be addressed right away.
I want to draw the attention of the KMC administrator and the commissioner and want to request them to take notice of this situation. There could be many ways which can be employed to ease the lives of KMC retirees, including providing them with medical insurance or through a card devised for each retiree through which he can use to avail of medical facilities from any hospital in Pakistan. Also, their pensions should be increased in proportion to the surge in prices of basic necessities.
Jawed Ahmed Khursheed
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2012.
