ISLAMABAD, March 12: Finance Minister Saleem H. Mandviwalla announced on Tuesday the retired federal government employees might draw their pension from Nadra’s ‘e-Sahulat’ outlets.

He told a news conference that initially the facility would be available in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts under a pilot programme launched jointly by the Employees Old-age Benefits Institution and National Database Registration Authority.

He said the retired employees would draw their pension without any hassle through ‘Smart National Identity Card’ to be issued to them by Nadra free of charge.

The minister said the card would be issued to pensioners free of charge because the finance ministry and Nadra would equally share its cost of Rs1,500.

Nadra would charge 1.5 per cent of the disbursed amounts while transaction through banks and post offices cost the pensioners over 3 per cent, he said.

Nadra (projects) Director General Gauhar Marwat, who also addressed the press conference, said that 6,000 ‘e-Sahulat’ outlets would be set up and later the facility would be extended to banks and post offices.

He said Nadra had developed the new system for transparent and convenient disbursement of pension which would integrate seamlessly with the existing mechanism and increase outreach for better facilitation of pensioners.

He said the federal government and Nadra would jointly execute a campaign to enrol pensioners for issuing smart cards.