The Punjab government has stopped pensions of retired public servants, including teachers who have voluntarily opted for retirement after completing 25 years of service.
According to a notification issued by the provincial finance ministry, the pension will be paid to the employees, who have retired after completing service of 25 years and the same will be admissible after they reach the age of superannuation or 55 years of age.
This means that those employees who have retired or opted for retirement after completing 25 years of service will have to wait for getting pension till they reach the age of 55 years.
Teachers’ leaders, including Shahid Mubarak, Shafiq Bhalwalia, Basharat Iqbal Raja, protested the government decision.
They said that the existing rules imply that the civil servants can either avail a retirement after completing 25 years or will continue till the age of superannuation.
They demanded the release of pensions of those employees who have opted for retirement after 25 years of service or else they will challenge the decision in court.
They said that the senior teachers were already frustrated over low wages and the meagre facilities being offered to the public servants.
The teachers’ leaders said that around 35,000 employees have submitted applications seeking retirement after completing 25 years of service and after that, the government started creating hindrance in processing their cases by issuing a new notification.
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The representatives said there will be no compromise on the matter and announced to stage strong protests if the pension was not released in September.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has decided to recruit teachers on 34,454 vacant posts of all categories in 53,000 schools across the province, including Rawalpindi.
The recruitment will be carried out through the Punjab Public Service Commission.
Transgender people will also be eligible to apply for the vacant positions, in accordance with their academic qualification, of primary, middle and higher teachers.
Most of the seats, 2,069, are vacant in the Sialkot district, followed by 1,299 in Lahore and 1,817 in Gujranwala districts. Around 1,616 seats are vacant in Faisalabad, 1,115 in Rawalpindi and 959 in Multan districts.
Applications against the vacant positions have been sought to be submitted in the second week of September.
Punjab Teachers’ Association President Rana Liaquat said that around 70,000 positions of teachers were vacant across the province, which needed to be filled urgently. He demanded recruitment against all positions regularly instead of contractually.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2021.
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