'Daughters eligible for parents' family pension'

Court sets aside rejection orders and directs departments to reassess claims

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has declared unlawful the Punjab Finance Department's restrictions on family pension to the extent that they exclude otherwise eligible family members of deceased government employees. The court ruled that an entitlement recognised by law cannot be curtailed through executive instructions or subordinate legislation.

Justice Syed Ahsan Raza Kazmi of the Rawalpindi bench, in a 20-page judgment, held that the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974, recognises the family of a deceased civil servant as the beneficiary of pensionary benefits and that the government cannot replace the broader statutory term "family" with "spouse" to exclude eligible unmarried and divorced daughters.

The judge observed that pension was not a bounty dependent on the government's discretion or benevolence but a legally regulated entitlement earned through service.

Any restriction on this entitlement must have a valid legal basis and remain within the limits prescribed by the parent statute.

The judgment came on three petitions filed by daughters of deceased government employees whose family pension claims had been rejected by the relevant departments under Finance Department notifications issued on December 2, 2024, and August 20, 2025, and a departmental clarification dated May 30, 2025.

The petitioners included an unmarried daughter, a divorced daughter and another divorced daughter seeking pensionary benefits in respect of both her deceased parents, who had served as government employees.

The court held that the expression "family" under the Punjab Civil Servants Act could not be restricted to the surviving spouse without clear statutory authority.

It said the term must be interpreted in its ordinary sense, keeping in view family relationships, dependency and the beneficial purpose of the legislation.

Referring to the Supreme Court judgment in Province of Punjab v. Kanwal Rashid (2021 SCMR 730), the court observed that the Finance Department lacked authority to alter the statutory entitlement through administrative clarifications or introduce disqualifications beyond the parent legislation.

The high court further held that receiving family pension in respect of one deceased parent could not automatically disqualify an unmarried daughter from claiming pension in respect of her other deceased parent.