PHC suspends K-P govt’s decision of raising retirement age from 60 to 63

The high court observes that the province has been made an ‘experimental laboratory’

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday suspended the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision of raising retirement age of government employees from 60 years-of-age to 63 years-of-age as part of its austerity drive.

A division bench of the high court, headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Naeem Anwar, announced a short judgment after conclusion of arguments by the counsels for defence and prosecution.

The bench observed that the province had been made an “experimental laboratory”, adding that Punjab and the Centre did not implement the decision of increasing retirement age of the employees. It also noted that former K-P chief secretary Saleem Khan had also raised serious objection over the government’s decision in this regard and mentioned the same in his summery to the government.

Representing the respondents, Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt argued that the provincial government had the power to increase the retirement age of its employees. He insisted that the decision would lessen financial burden on the province besides increasing volume of development programs. He further told the court that the situation will become normal after three years.

K-P passes bill to raise retirement age

Advocate Muazam Butt, Noor Alam Khan and Malik Zahirudidn – the petitioners’ counsels – in their arguments, maintained that 123,000 government posts are vacant which could not be filled due to the raise in the retirement age.

Nine writ petitions were filled in the high court against the K-P government’s decision by Qaiser Khan, Shabina Noor, Azizullah Khan, Sultanur Rehman, Fatima Malik, Dr Muhmmad Naeem Arbab, Abdul Ghaffar, Ijaz Hussain and Muhammad Ajmal Wazir.

The petitioners had made the provincial government responded in the case.

The K-P government had endorsed a move from the government to raise the retirement age of government officials in the province as part of its austerity drive in July last year.

The opposition had rejected the bill, arguing that the law is being amended to facilitate a small number of officials, who are on the verge of retirement.