ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Employees’ Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) to ensure lifelong payment of pension to Muhammad Shehzad, a person with visual disability who had been denied pension by EOBI following the death of his father.

The president said the person with disability (PWD) could not be left in a merciless situation by the State, given the fact that his elders were deceased and were receiving pension before their deaths. He regretted that EOBI displayed grave insensitivity by neglecting a PWD and that too at a time when all his predecessors had passed away leaving him without any support.

Muhammad Shehzad (the complainant), who has been blind since birth, had filed a complaint with the Wafaqi Mohtasib, stating that his father, Muhammad Afzal Zafar, was an old age pensioner of EOBI and died on 20.12.2016. The mother of the complainant had already passed away during the lifetime of his father. He had requested EOBI to grant him a “family pension” for life as a “disabled legal heir” of his late father. The EOBI, however, rejected his application by placing reliance on Section 22B (3) (i) of the EOB Act, 1976, which provides that only male minors under 18 years of age are eligible for a family pension, whereas, Shehzad was 44 years old. The Mohtasib closed further investigation of his complaint, after which, Muhammad Shehzad filed a representation before the president of Pakistan.

The president accepted the complainant’s representation and emphasised that keeping in view the letter and spirit of the Constitution of Pakistan, particularly, Articles 9 and 25, a person with disability could not be deprived of such a pension, since he deserved to be treated on a much better footing and placed in a more deserving category than any other recipient of pension in the country presently. He also endorsed Mohtasib’s recommendation that EOBI’s law in this regard should be reviewed and brought in line with the Federal Policy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024