PESHAWAR: Accepting the plea of over 260 former employees of the Islamia College Peshawar, the Peshawar High Court has ordered the University of Peshawar to immediately release their pension withheld since August this year.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah ordered the respondents, including the UoP, to make all due pension payments to the petitioners forthwith until any decision was taken by a committee constituted by the higher education department to determine their status.

It declared that as pension payment was necessary for the well-being and peace of mind of the retirees as well as it was their right, their petition was accepted by the court.

The petition was jointly filed by former ICP associate professor Sher Haider and 260 other pensioners seeking the court’s directives for the respondents, including the UoP vice-chancellor, to release the monthly pension of all former employees withheld since August without further delay.

Rules payments will be made to ICP pensioners until govt’s decision on their status

The petitioners prayed the court to declare void the July 26 letter sent by the UoP registrar to the vice-chancellor of the Islamia College University Peshawar (ICUP) for the payment of pension to the pensioners, who had served in the Islamia College Peshawar, the erstwhile constituent college of the UoP.

The UoP has stopped the payment of pension to the petitioners insisting that after the establishment of the ICUP, the ICP was no longer its constituent college and therefore, the pension for petitioners should be released by the ICUP.

The counsel for petitioners, Nazeer Ahmad, said his clients were pensioners of the UoP as they’d either retired on attaining the age of superannuation or their family members were the former staff members.

He contended that the UoP consisted of other postgraduate departments and undergraduate colleges, including the ICP and Islamia Collegiate School.

The lawyer said the pensioners were recruited in line with the procedure prescribed by the UoP and they had served the university until reaching the age of superannuation.

He said the terms and conditions of service of the teachers or employees applicable to other employees were also applicable to the employees of the ICP and Islamia Collegiate School

The counsel contended that retirement orders for them or their relatives were issued by the UoP as the competent authority.

He added that the benevolent fund contribution, the GP Fund and the pension contribution all were deposited in the UoP’s funds and by all means of law, they (petitioners) were the UoP’s employees.

The lawyer said the UoP had also paid petitioners gratuity, encashment of the “leaves prior to retirement” and all ancillary pensionary benefits to them until July 2022.

He said the ICP got the status of the university through a separate Act passed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in 2009 and the UoP continued to pay pensions of former staffers of ICP and Islamia Collegiate School.

The counsel appearing for the UoP contended that ICP was no longer constituent college of UoP and it was now attached with the ICUP and therefore, the petitioners should be paid pension by the latter.

He pointed out that for resolving the dispute and determining status of the petitioner the higher education department had constituted a committee through a notification on Sep 23.

The lawyer contended that the UoP had already been facing financial problems and was not in a position to pay the pension of the petitioners.

The bench observed that it reflected from the record that prior to the upgradation of the ICP as university until Aug 2022, the petitioners had been paid their due pension by the UoP without break or ifs and buts.

It added that the petitioners had been paid all pensionary benefits by the respondents since the completion of service term, the act of withholding such benefit to them won’t make sense.

The bench ruled that the respondents had insisted that the university was unable to pay those benefits to the petitioners due to financial constraints but didn’t produce records to prove the assertion.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022