The Punjab Local Government Board (PLGB) has paid outstanding pension dues to a widow of her husband, amounting to Rs 143,786 on the intervention of Punjab Ombudsman, Abdur Rashid Khan.
Zahida Zafar, the widow of late Dr Zafar Iqbal Khokhar, who worked as Senoir Medical Officer (BS-18) in Municipal Dispensary, Faisal Town, Usman Park, Gujranwala, submitted a complaint to the Ombudsman Secretariat that a period of over one year and three months had passed but her family had not been released pension by the PLGB.
Earlier, the PLGB Secretary maintained that as the district governments of Gujranwala and Sialkot had not remitted the pension contribution of late Dr Zafar Iqbal Khokhar, therefore, payment could not be made to the widow.
He said the district governments of Gujranwala and Sialkot be directed to transfer the said amount of pension contribution through a cross cheque/bank draft in the name of Secretary PLGB, Lahore, to enable the office to release the pension dues to the widow.
The Ombudsman held that a period of one year and three months had passed, but the family pension case of the complainant widow had not been decided, which amounts to maladministration on the part of the Agency.
He ordered district officers of Gujranwala and Sialkot to remit the pension contributions of Rs 1,28,759 and Rs 15,027 respectively towards the pension fund of the PLGB, and directed the PLGB Secretary to finalise the case within one month. In his compliance report, Secretary Punjab Local Government Board has now submitted that, in the light of the orders of Punjab Ombudsman, the outstanding amount of Rs 1,28,759 and Rs 15,027 had been released to the widow, Zahida Zafar.