A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Naeem Anwar Wednesday declared the decision of KP government regarding increase in retirement age of government employees from 60 to 63 years as void.

The bench announced short judgment after conclusion of arguments by the arguments of the counsels of the petitioners and defense. The KP government was represented by Advocate General (AG) Shumail Ahmad Butt.

The court ruled that the KP had been made experimental laboratory, adding that Punjab province and the Centre did not implement the decision of increasing retirement age of the employees.

The court further ruled that former KP chief secretary Saleem Khan had also raised serious objection over the government decision in that regard and mentioned the same in his summary to the government.

The Advocate General told the court that the provincial government had the power to increase the retirement age of employees. He argued that the decision would lessen financial burden on the province and help the government to save fund for development. He further told the court that after three years the situation would be become normal.

The counsels for petitioners Advocate Muazam Butt, Noor Alam Khan and Malik Zahirudidn in their arguments maintained that 123,000 government posts are vacant which could not be filled due to rise in the retirement age by the government from 60 to 63 years.