National press trust: LHC accepts journalist’s pension plea

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has accepted a petition from a veteran journalist and directed the National Press Trust (formerly Progressive Papers Limited) to release his pension within 30 days. In his verdict, Justice Muhammad Farrukh Irfan Khan criticised the NPT, saying that its retired employees had engaged in an arduous litigation process all the way to the Supreme Court and won the right to pension benefits, but the department was still not ready to pay them. Instead, he said, the NPT was spending huge amounts on ceremonies in honour of politicians. “Retired employees of the department cannot be made scapegoats with the excuse of paucity of funds,” the judge observed. He said that the NPT’s claim to have paid the pension by paying the petitioner a lump sum at a fixed rate applicable in 1996 was unjustified and a violation of the country’s pension laws. Journalist Shafqat Tanvir Mirza had moved the plea for his pension benefits, which he said he needed to pay for his lung cancer treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2012.