The Federal Ombudsman of Pakistan Tuesday directed the ministries of Finance and Information Technology and AGPR to finalise the automation of E-pension system to address the ordeals of pensioners at the earliest. Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar, Senior Adviser Law, who is also Grievance Commissioner for the Overseas Pakistanis said that Federal Ombudsman Muhammad Salman Faruqui had formed a committee of senior officers and ex-Auditor General of Pakistan, who had proposed launching E-Pension System.
Khokhar said he had held meeting with senior officers of the Ministry of Finance, Establishment Division, Controller General of Accounts, AGPR, Ministry of Housing & Works and Ministry of Information Technology. During the meeting he was apprised that Ministry of Information Technology had devised an e-pension system with consultation of Finance Division, AGPR and other departments.
However, the AGPR informed that new pro forma of pension and family system was prepared and soon it would be distributed among the departments to connect it to the main e-portal of the AGPR. To which Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar asked the representatives of the departments to finalize the e-portal system for gazetted and non-gazetted federal government employees besides establishing an online complaint system for pension cases being connected with the complaint system of federal Ombudsman.
It is relevant to add here that all federal government departments had already designated welfare officers to deal with the cases of pension, whereas establishment division, finance division and the AGPR had also established special pension cells to ensure the removal of all impediments relating to the pension of federal government employees and its disbursement to them prior to their retirement. Khokhar said that representatives of all departments were asked to finalize their work on e-pension system by the end of December, inauguration of which would be made on January 1, next year.-PR