Pakistan Post to end pension payments

Military accounts to be paid through banks from Dec 1

RAWALPINDI:

The Pakistan Post will end pension payments to military accounts in November, with the amount to be transferred to banks starting December 1, it emerged on Thursday.

This follows the closure of general savings accounts and special savings account that was initiated in 2021 in order to comply with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conditions after failing to digitise its accounts.

According to sources, major general post offices (GPO) including the one in Rawalpindi have already taken signatures of account holders on pension transfer forms, while other GPOs had already done the same a few weeks ago.

As per reports, Pakistan Post generated annual revenue between Rs8 million to Rs10 billion as commission when the system of saving banks accounts and military pensions was active completely.

However, its failure to digitalise its system forced it to close such accounts.

This has left tens of thousands of people across the country, particularly from rural areas, facing long travel to reach assigned banks for their payments.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Post would lose out on a large chunk of revenue following this discontinuation. It would also result in redundancies at a time when the postal service already had pending stories.

This includes payments to contractual medical officers of Pakistan Post, particularly at different postal medical centres. The supply of medicines to these centres has already been stopped for over a year. The delay in issuance of tenders resulted in wastage of funds, the source added.

The patients reliant on such facilities were facing problems as well, they added.

According to the source, those heading branches of the post offices were awaiting salaries for fifteen months. They claimed that those working for decades were still paid measly amounts that were also delayed for months.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2023.