Alvi directs IIUI to give pension to teacher

President Dr Arif Alvi has upheld the order of the federal ombudsman (Wafaqi Mohtasib) directing the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) to pay pension shares to a former professor, who had served the university for 14 years.

The president said that pension was a hard-earned right that accrued to an employee by dint of his long, continuous and faithful service, and the deprivation or delay in the grant of this right could not be permitted, except for under the law.

Dr Ali Asghar Chishti (the complainant) had served at IIUI from June 1985 to August 1999 as a faculty member before joining the Allama Iqbal Open University through the proper channel.

After he retired from AIOU in 2020, he requested the IIUI for the transfer of his pension shares but the same was denied despite the issuance of a letter of liability in his favour by the university.

Subsequently, he approached the Wafaqi Mohtasib (WM) for relief, who passed the order in his favour, as during the hearing, IIUI admitted his claim and assured him to redress his grievances. Later, the IIUI chose to file a representation with the president against the orders of WM.

The president upheld the order of Mohtasib, directing IIUI to transfer the pension share of the complainant. He stated that it was an admitted fact that pension was not a bounty but rather an employee earned it by dint of his long, continuous and faithful service. He added that the hard-earned right, that accrued to an employee, was like “property”, and constituted a fundamental right to livelihood under Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan. He stressed that the deprivation, even a part of this amount, could not be permitted, except for under the law.

The president also cited another SC judgment dated 21.02.2013, wherein government departments had been directed to not cause unnecessary hurdle or delay in finalizing the payment of pensionary/retirement benefits in the future.

In its judgment, the court had stated that any violation of these directions shall amount to criminal negligence and dereliction of duty, and if any delay in the finalization of pension benefits cases of government servants, widows or orphan children was brought to the notice of the Court, the head of the concerned department would also be held liable for the contempt of the Court and would be dealt with strictly per the law.

The president concluded that since IIUI had conceded the entitlement/claim of the complainant before the Wafaqi Mohtasib, therefore, it had no legal or moral justification to backtrack or seek reversal of the Mohtasib’s orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2023.