Javed Ullah Raja
It is a bitter truth that the law and justice in the country is different for the elite and for the poor. The old pensioners in the country are forced to live a painful life. It is not difficult but impossible to pull the car of life in the current meager pension. But till date no government has done practically anything to solve the problems of pensioners. While the pensioners live only on this limited pension. Inflation has increased several hundred times and what is the significance of only 17.5% increase in the current budget. Retired people from financial institutions still get a few hundred and a few thousand rupees pension. while all the institutions are silent spectators. This aged oppressed class cannot even protest. The survival of poor and especially pensioners in Pakistan is nothing less than a miracle. Celebrated on June 15 every year. The day is meant to raise the voice of caring elders. Abuse of the elderly should be highlighted as a global social issue because the health and human rights of millions of elderly people around the world and especially in the country are being affected. According to a review and report: Last year, the University of Southampton, with the help of the United Nations, published a report on the World Day of Older Persons, which was created by evaluating the quality of life of the elderly in 91 countries of the world. Sweden was the best country for the elderly, while the United States was ranked 8th and the United Kingdom 13th, on the contrary, Afghanistan was ranked 1st and Pakistan 3rd among the worst countries for the elderly. The number of elderly people in Pakistan is increasing rapidly, while the attention towards them is negligible. If this situation continues, in the next few decades, Pakistan is feared to be ranked tenth in the world. Where this will lead to various problems, issues like pension due to retired senior employees will be a challenge for the government. The problems of pensioners in the country have been unresolved for many years. Like other institutions, an example of this is the retired employees of Allied Bank. The Court of Pakistan gave judgments in favor of the retired employees of Allied Bank. In which it was said that pension and dues should be paid to the retired employees of the bank based on their last salary. Because the bank did not pay pension and dues based on the last salary. The said bank is ignoring all these high court decisions. Nor is it being followed by the government in favor of the retired employees. The bank, according to its self-made circular, paid pensions and dues to the retired employees from its institution as on June 30, 2002. It is sad that thousands of bank pensioners and widow family pensioners are becoming dear to Allah while waiting for their legitimate rights. No one has paid attention to the violation of rights, injustice and abuse. How long will our rulers abuse the elderly pensioners? The government should take immediate steps to give the retired employees their legitimate rights. The retired employees are the senior citizens of the society whose human rights are being violated. Regarding the retired employees of Allied Bank, the clear decisions of the High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which are in favor of our senior citizens, the government agencies are failing to implement. It is a pity that the human rights organizations also do not raise their voice to get the rights of pensioners who retire from various departments. A large number of weak, thin and elderly pensioners demonstrated in front of the Lahore Press Club in favor of their demands, which was organized by the ABREWA organization, the president of the organization, Muhammad Arshad, Riaz Masood, Iftikhar Hussain Mir, Maqsood Ahmed Chaghtai, Qaim Kazmi, Hanif Chaghatai and hundreds of other members and representatives from distant areas of Punjab participated. Iftikhar Mir and Maqsood Chaghatai while talking to the media on this occasion said that the courts heard the cases of sick, weak and weak pensioners daily. Make their decisions on humanitarian basis as soon as possible, if the pensioners or their families fall ill, they do not have money to buy medicine, on 17 January 2020, the case of Muhammad Zafar and others in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Allied Bank. In favor of the pensioners, but it has not been implemented till date, the oppressive society and the tyrants of the times have trampled it, many pensioners have left the mortal world during this time, on this occasion, the pensioners have made their demands. They also raised slogans in favor. There is a dire need for the country’s high courts to take suo motu and make the government institutions implement them.
