• Minister says amendment to Civil Servants Act aimed at minimising burden on public exchequer
• New pension plan will apply on employees appointed from July 1, 2024

KARACHI: Amid opposition by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council, the Sindh Assembly on Friday passed with majority vote the Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill that replaced the old traditional pension with contributory pension for the provincial government employees appointed from July 1, 2024.

The Sindh Defined Contributory Pension Scheme, approved by the provincial cabinet, requires the employees to pay into the plan from their salary contrary to the traditional pension plan in which only the provincial government contributes.

Under the SDCPS, the government and employees will contribute at a provisional rate of 12 per cent and 10 per cent respectively and the contributions will be deposited into the employee’s account.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Zia Lanjar told the house that the it was expedient to amend the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1975 to minimise the extraordinary burden upon the public exchequer in future as there was an alarming increase in pension bill over a period of last decade and a large portion of provincial budget was being spent upon the pension liabilities.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill said that a study on actuarial valuation of Employees Benefit Scheme revealed that from 2015-16 to 2018-19 the current revenue expenditure grew at the average annual rate of 18.2 per cent and Employees Related Expenses grew at average annual rate of 15.3pc, but the pension bill grew twice at an average annual rate of 30.8pc.

The law minister said that the contributory pension plan would contain monthly contributions by civil servants themselves and the government for post-retirement financial security of the employees.

He said that the scheme would serve as a viable alternative to the current defined benefit pension scheme.

According to the amended law, an individual who is appointed or regularised as a civil servant on or after the commencement of the Sindh Civil Servant (Amendment) Act, 2024, will be considered a civil servant, except for pension and gratuity.

Instead, they will participate in a Defined Contribution Pension Scheme as prescribed. In place of pension and gratuity, the civil servant will be entitled to receive the amount contributed by them, along with the contributions made by the government to their account in the mentioned Fund, in the prescribed manner.

In the unfortunate event of the civil servant’s death, their family will receive the amount from the Contribution Pension Fund, as prescribed in the Defined Contribution Pension Rules to be framed by the government.

As per the amended law, every government employee can get retirement and pension benefits after 20 years of service.

However, the employees recruited before July 1, 2024 will be entitled to pension under the prevailing rules.

Meanwhile, the house also approved the Sindh Institute of Physical Medicine Amendment Bill, according to which the administrative control of the institute would be transferred from the health department to the department of empowerment of person with disabilities.

Earlier, during Question Hour, Leader of the Opposition Ali Khurshidi expressed grave concern for not getting satisfactory answers to the lawmakers’ written and oral queries from the parliamentary secretary for sports.

He also took exception to the absence of Sports Minister Sardar Muhammad Bux Khan Mahar during the Question Hour. “Sindh Assembly is not joke as ministers do not turn up and parliamentary secretaries don’t have answers up to the satisfaction of lawmakers”, he added.

During Question Hour, Pakistan Peoples Party member Mir Nadir Magsi asked the provincial government to encourage car racing which was a fun sport and everyone would like it.

In reply to a call attention notice, Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah said that the machines of Sindh Textbook Board were outdated, due to which there were complaints of unavailability of textbooks every year. “Printing 25 million books and then revising them is a long task, but efforts are being made to improve it,” he said.

The house adjourned to Monday.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024