The retired employees of the Punjab government have urged the provincial government to implement the Supreme Court's decision at the earliest and include the cost of living allowance in their pension as directed by the apex court. The federal government has implemented the direction of the court but the Punjab government is still reluctant to pay the allowance, said a statement signed by several former BS-1 to BS-22 employees.
It is pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court on April 1 2011 upheld the Federal Shariat Court order of December 2 last year that the cost of living allowance admissible at the rate of 7 percent of basic pay be treated as emolument reckonable towards pension for all those employees in BPS 1-22 who were in receipt of the said allowance at the time of their retirement prior to 2001.
The federal government notified the instructions of the Supreme Court to the Punjab government on May 16 through an office memorandum (No F.1 3 (10) -Reg.6/2008/413). "The Punjab Finance Department authorities informed a number of pensioners that some legal matters were hindering the implementation of the notification in spite of the fact that there is no difference in pension scheme being implemented at federal and provincial levels. Furthermore, the Punjab government had already implemented identical directions of the apex court in 2006 to treat Rs 300 and Rs 100 ad hoc relief as part of emoluments for the purpose of calculation of pension through orders dated March 2 and August 24 (No FD.PC2-1/97)," said the statement.