NATIONAL Assembly Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting is scheduled to discuss the issue of non-payment of Commutation, Medical Allowance and arrears of Radio Pakistan pensioners.
The Committee Chairman, Phullain Baloch, belongs to the Progressive National Party, which echoes the voice of the downtrodden segments of society. The committee also includes parliamentarians from Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan. Radio Pakistan’s pensioners request these national leaders and public representatives to rescue them from the cruel clutches of the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
It is for six years that these pensioners have been deprived of their hard-earned Commutation, for which they have rendered decades of service. Similarly, despite clear instructions from the Supreme Court and the written order issued by Radio Pakistan management, the pensioners are kept deprived of Medical Allowance, in spite of the fact that in their old age, pensioners need more medicines than food.
Every year, the government announces an increase in pension, but the Ministry willfully denies it to the pensioners of Radio Pakistan. This is not the first meeting of the committee on the issue. Both National Assembly and Senate Committees have been discussing these issues for the last six years, for which the pensioners are grateful to these public representatives. But the bureaucracy is manipulating these meetings in such a manner that, although they get an increase in the annual budget from the Finance Ministry, it does not trickle down to the aged pensioners.
When Radio Pakistan’s budget was Rs. 4.486 billion in 2021-22, the Ministry told committees that they lacked funds and would pay Commutation when the budget was increased. The budget was raised to Rs. 5.522 billion in 2022-23, which shows an increase of more than Rs. 900 million, while the lumpsum amount of Commutation at that time was less than that. But despite that, they refused to pay the Commutation. Then in 2023-24, Radio Pakistan’s budget was increased to Rs. 6.760 billion, an increase of Rs. 1.2 billion, but they were still reluctant to pay.
In one meeting of the Senate Committee, late Senator Irfan Siddiqui asked the DG of Radio Pakistan that when the organization has several billion rupees worth of Reserve Fund, why he was not paying the pensioners from this fund. But the DG kept on refusing and said that he would pay when the budget is increased to Rs. Eight billion. In 2024-25, the budget did increase to Rs. 7.7078 billion, but he again refused to grant payment.
It is ironical that due to the One-Line Budget for all departments under the Information Ministry, the Finance Ministry increases the budget of Radio Pakistan every year, but the Ministry diverts the budget to itself. How can it be justified that after increasing Radio Pakistan’s budget to Rs. 7.7 billion last year, the Ministry showed this budget as Rs. 6.2 billion in the current financial year? So it is not a matter of scarcity of funds, but of bureaucratic reluctance to pay the pensioners their due rights.
If some MNA or Senator is mobilized by a pensioner to resolve the matter, the Ministry and the DG pay Commutation to only that person to shut the mouth of the parliamentarian, but do not resolve the matter on a permanent basis. The pensioners, therefore, request the Chairman and members of the committee not to be deceived by the DG of Radio Pakistan or the Ministry and rather force them to pay the dues of pensioners without any further delay. Pensioners have already suffered huge losses due to devaluation and depreciation of the rupee.
—(Affected Pensioners of Radio Pakistan)
