Red tape leaves retired cop running for GP fund

Traffic warden caught in jurisdictional issue

RAWALPINDI:

An elderly traffic warden has been left running between the City Traffic Police (CTP) headquarters and the office of the Chief Police Officer to secure his General Provident (GP) fund upon retirement.

The retired head constable, Faiz Ahmed, had been in the employ of the district police. He was later inducted in the traffic police. However, at the end of his service, Ahmed found out that though his pension has been released, both the departments have abandoned him on account of the GP fund.

He has been making rounds to the Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Ahsan Younus and Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Ali Akbar for the past four months to secure his GP fund worth Rs371,000.

Ahmed told The Express Tribune that he had applied for the pension and GP fund in April 2019 at the time of his superannuation. He said that he had submitted all required documents in the accounts branch.

Later, Traffic Warden Qazi Naveed, who was deployed in the related branch, told the retired warden that his pension documents had been cleared by the Rawalpindi district administration and City Traffic Police (CTP), but his GP fund was not.

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To make matters worse, Naveed allegedly told Ahmed that they did not have any record of the GP fund being deducted from his salary for years.

Despite producing all relevant records, Naveed demanded Rs40,000 from Ahmed and obtained his signatures as well.

After a few days, Naveed showed him CTO’s signatures on the documents and assured the retired employee that the money would be transferred to his bank account soon.

When there was no movement on the matter for another month, the retried warden contacted Naveed again in March 2020.

However, he was told that the money has been transferred to his account and that he could withdraw it.

But, when Ahmed checked his account, it was still empty.

When the entire matter was brought to the CTO's knowledge, he launched an inquiry against the warden and suspended him after all charges against him were proved.

Ahmed, though, also took his plea to Rawalpindi CPO Younus, but he got no relief there and his complaint was again referred to the CTO. The issue, Ahmed claims, remains unresolved.

Qazi Naveed, when contacted by The Express Tribune, maintained that he was not authorised to oversee the GP fund issue. He added that he had been transferred from the department in July 2019.

However, he admitted that he remains suspended on the fund's clearance issue.

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When the CTP’s spokesperson was contacted, he said that while Ahmed was inducted into the CTP from the district police, his accounts were maintained at the district accounts office and that office was now overseeing his issue.

The CTP spokesperson further said that the complainant also withdrew around Rs80,000 during his service and he was not entitled to a refund of withdrawn money.

The Rawalpindi police spokesperson did not give his version on the issue despite contact.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2020.