PESHAWAR: Amid ever-growing pension liabilities, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday reversed its decision of increasing the retirement age by three years for government employees.

The decision to revert the amendment — which has been pending in court since its enactment in July 2019 and has created a number of legal and administrative issues for the provincial government — was made in a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.

In a video briefing, KP Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said the retirement age would be reverted to 60 from 63 years through an amendment to the civil servants’ law.

He added that the early retirement age ie 25 years of service or 55 years of age would remain in place.

Mr Jhagra said the provincial government had earlier increased retirement age to 63 years which was unfortunately turned down by the Peshawar High Court. The apex court later upheld the provincial government’s position in this matter, he added.

The provincial finance minister said that after discussions and input from stakeholders, the case was placed before the KP cabinet, which decided to revert the pension age to initial 60 from 63 years. However, Mr Jhagra said, the government has prepared a package of pension reforms, some portions of which would be implemented immediately while others would be added after more deliberations.

He said the cabinet has decided to keep the increase in early retirement age intact which would help against the wastage of public money.

Mr Jhagra said that they have also formed a committee to review the pension system and rules. The committee would soon place its recommendations before the provincial cabinet, he added.

Meanwhile, a Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench on Tuesday adjourned hearing of different petitions challenging the KP Civil Servants (Amendment) Act 2019, through which relevant provision of law was amended to increase the retirement age.

The bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Muhammad Naeem Anwar was informed by an Additional Advocate General (AAG) that the KP government had decided to roll back its earlier decision.

The provincial cabinet had also given approval to the decision and a bill to reverse the said amendments would be tabled in the KP Assembly next week, the AAG added.

Advocate Noor Alam Khan, appearing for Shabina Noor (one of the petitioners), requested the bench to adjourn the hearing till the required amendments were made in the law.

The bench ordered that till first week of April the required notification of the assembly should be submitted about making amendments in the law for reversing the earlier decision.

In the 2019-20 budget, the KP government had announced plans to increase the retirement age limit to 63 years in a bid to save about Rs20 billion per annum. However, this move soon ran into trouble after it was challenged by government employees and others at the PHC. A high court bench had on Feb 19, 2020, declared the government act of increasing retirement age of government servants from 60 to 63 years by amending the civil servants law as unconstitutional.

However, this year in January, the Supreme Court had set aside the earlier judgment of the PHC on some legal grounds and remanded the petitions back to the high court for fresh decisions.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2021