Lost in interpretation: Ombudsman affirms woman’s right to family pension

Mehmood says private employment may not be a regular source of income.

LAHORE: Punjab Ombudsman Javed Mahmood ruled on Tuesday that private sector employment could not be treated as a regular source of income as it might be temporary and lack legal protection.

He said only public sector employment constituted a regular source of income under the relevant law. Mahmood said pension sanctioning authorities were depriving people of their rights by unilaterally interpreting vague rules. He said this worked to the disadvantage of weaker segments of society including female heirs of retired government officials.

Mahmood was discussing the refusal of Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) to award family pension of a deceased worker to his only daughter, Neelam Shafi. He instructed the board management to grant her the pension in one month and submit a compliance report to his office.

Shafi, a teacher at a private school, had said her father had retired as an officer at the security press at the board. Shafi said he had died in 2011. She said board officials had refused to grant her the pension on the pretext that she was working at a private school which constituted a regular source of income.

After Shafi contested the interpretation of rules Mahmood had instructed Punjab Pension Cell Mohtasib In-charge Wazir Qureshi to look into the matter. Qureshi failed to obtain an official definition of what constituted a regular source of income from the Lahore BISE, the Education Department, the Finance Department and the Punjab Accountant General.

Mahmood then concluded that Shafi’s job did not constitute a regular source of income after reviewing Black’s Law Dictionary and case law. He said pension sanctioning authorities had discriminated against heirs of retired officials by misinterpreting the phrase due to the absence of a clear definition. This had enabled them to interpret the term unilaterally. Mahmood said the law upheld the right to family pension which cannot be superseded by the issuance of general official directives that lack legal precedent. He said Shafi was entitled to the pension since the date of her father’s demise and instructed the board to submit a compliance report to his office.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2014.