Tribunal sets sepoy's retirement age at 60

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Services Tribunal (KPST) has accepted appeals filed by Levies personnel from various districts of the Malakand Division against a provincial government's decision to fix the retirement age of sepoy at 45 years.

The tribunal has declared the K-P government's decision null and void and ordered the restoration of the affected employees to service.

A two-member tribunal comprising Zeba Rashid and Janat Gul Afridi issued the order. The petitioners, including Mian Umar and others, were represented by Dr Barrister Adnan Khan.

The petitioner's counsel informed the tribunal that after the merger of the Fata into K-P in 2018, Khasadars — who were federal Levies personnel in ex-Fata — were merged into the police, and their retirement age was fixed at 60 years.

However, for Levies personnel under the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata), the retirement age for sepoys was set at 45 years. He further stated that rules framed in 2021 regarding this matter were unconstitutional and unlawful.

While employees in the former Fata were allowed to serve until the age of 60, the same benefit was not extended to Levies personnel in Pata, which amounted to discrimination, he argued.

Initially, the age limit was set at 42 years in 2021 and later increased to 45 years through an amendment, despite the fact that, as civil servants, their retirement age should be 60 like other departments, he said.