Pension fund to be set up for MTI’s civil servants

All MTI’s will adopt provincial govt pension rules, create a small pension cell

PESHAWAR: The provincial health department has decided to set up a pension fund for the employees of medical teaching institutes (MTIs) across the province while a special cell will be built to process these cases.

The move comes after many employees of MTI’s across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), who had left their civil service jobs to work at the institutes, expressed concerns about their pensions. The issues were raised before senior officials of the health department.



In a confab with officials from the accountant general’s office, the finance and provincial health departments in Peshawar last week, it was decided that a pension fund would be set up.

Under Section 16 of the MTI Act, all civil servants working in MTIs shall be given a choice to either continue as civil servants or opt to become an employee of the MTI, provided that in case of absorption their terms and conditions in previous services shall stand protected.



In this regard, the health secretariat wrote to all MTIs stating the classification translates into the employee’s right to pensionable services just as when they were serving as civil servants. However, since these employees were no longer civil servants, their employment records, leave accounts would not be maintained by either the AG office nor by the health department.

“A lot of these employees have retired and have not received any pension so far owing to lack of clarity on this issue with the MTIs. Therefore, the MTIs will now have to process such cases and finalise them at their end,” read the letter, a copy available with The Express Tribune.



According to health department officials, the meeting decided that every MTI will adopt the provincial government pension rules and procedures, albeit with minor amendments.  Consequently, the letter read, pension sanctioning authorities will be notified and a small pension cell, comprising two to three individuals will be created, for processing the case since many of the cases have already been finalised.

“MTI will establish a ‘pension fund’ on the pattern of the provincial finance department and ingest all funds made available for the purpose to increase the volume of the fund,” the letter read, adding that the MTI will start paying the long overdue claims immediately.

During the meeting, the provincial government also granted autonomy to nine tertiary care and medical teaching institutions under the K-P MTI Reforms Act 2015.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2018.