ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday raised minimum pension of banks’ employees to Rs8,000 per month with an observation that subjecting a pensioner to a life of penury and impoverishment was a clear violation of his fundamental rights to life and dignity.

The observation came in a detailed verdict authored by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while deciding a set of suo motu proceedings taken on a number of complaints submitted to the Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court by retired employees of different departments complaining about the non-payment of their pension benefits. The applications seeking directions against different government departments came from the retired employees of Privatisation Commi­ssion, Local Government Department, Sindh, etc.

Later some of the applicants / petitioners, retirees of the United Bank Limited (UBL), Allied Bank Limited (ABL) as well as the Habib Bank Limited (HBL) also approached the Supreme Court with the grievance that they were receiving meagre amounts by way of pension while the banks were not granting increase in the post-retirement benefits for the past several years.

To subject a pensioner to a life of penury is a violation of his fundamental rights

While using discretion, the court ordered raising minimum pension paid to any pensioner, including their widows, to Rs8,000 per month with immediate effect. Earlier, the banks have volunteered to increase the minimum pension to Rs5,250 per month.

During the proceedings senior counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan was appointed as amicus curiae (friend of the court) by the court whereas Advocate Ayesha Hamid represented different pensioners of the banks, Tariq Mehmood Khokhar represented pensioners from the ABL, Salman Aslam Butt represented management of the UBL, Barrister Ali Zafar represented the HBL, etc.

In a 30-page verdict, the chief justice observed that if a man serves his employer for a number of years, during the prime of his life and gives of his honest labour to his employer and where he was promised pension, whether under statute, common law or contract then he should be able to plan his financial future for his declining years keeping in mind such promises of a pension.

And when that pension is given but is of a sum which is illusory and by no amount of prudent budgeting can it be used to sustain a man independently and forces him to turn to his children or other relatives or sources for help, offends against his dignity, the chief justice observed.

To subject a pensioner to a life of penury and impoverishment is a clear violation of his fundamental rights to life and dignity as enshrined in Articles 9 and 14, respectively.

The entitlement to pension is not a fundamental right but must be duly earned, the verdict said, adding that once this right had been perfected and earned, as has been by the petitioners in this case, it was no longer a question whether they were entitled to the pension or not.

The fundamental right that is to be enforced is that the pension given to such pensioners must be of a level which allows them to keep body and soul together, the verdict said.

The judgement, however, appreciated that on being called upon and encouraged by the court, the boards of the banks showed generosity, magnanimity, great sense of corporate social responsibility to come up with a scheme whereby there will be an immediate and substantial increase in the minimum pension paid to the pensioners.

The judgement ordered the banks to increase the pension of their retired employees by five per cent to all the three categories of pensioners like the original retirees, those whose pensions were linked to basic pay but frozen in past years and in the case of UBL to retrenched employees, including those who had served the bank for more than 10 years on the date of retrenchment.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2018