Removing age bar: Tweak in the law to benefit widows

NA panel suggests change in law to support families of deceased employees

ISLAMABAD: A widow needs financial support, whether her spouse passed away at a young age or old. A parliamentary panel on Wednesday seems to have realised this and approved an amendment in The Federal Employees Benevolent Fund & Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2013.

The amendment seeks the removal of the age barrier of an employee who dies during employment or retirement. Earlier, the age limit stood at 70 years, which meant that the spouse of an employee would be entitled to receive benevolent grant for life only if the employee died before the age of 70.

The decision of removing the age barrier was taken by NA Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat. The amendment was proposed by the government.

According to the existing laws, a monthly grant of Rs4,000 [minimum] to Rs10,100 [maximum] is paid if an employee dies during service or dies after retirement up to the age of 70 years, or retires on medical grounds with at least 80% disability.

This grant is paid for life incapacitated retired employees. If the incapacitated retired employee dies, his/her spouse is also entitled to the said grant for life. In case there is no spouse, the said monthly grant is paid for a maximum period of 15 years or up to the age of 70 years of the employee, whichever is less, to other eligible family members.

The committee deferred a bill of Dr Nafisa Shah from the PPP for constitution of independent National Air Transportation Safety Board for one month. While stating objectives and reasons of the bill, Dr Shah has said that ‘at present, the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] is investigating air accidents, which does not make investigation independent. As a regulator in any eventuality, it must itself come under scrutiny.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2014.