PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) suspended the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision of raising retirement age of government employees from 60 years-of-age to 63 years-of-age as part of its austerity drive.
A division bench of the high court, headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Naeem Anwar, announced a short judgment after conclusion of arguments by the counsels for defense and prosecution.
The bench observed that the province had been made an “experimental laboratory”, adding that Punjab and the Centre did not implement the decision of increasing retirement age of the employees. It also noted that former K-P chief secretary Saleem Khan had also raised serious objection over the government’s decision in this regard and mentioned the same in his summery to the government.
Representing the respondents, Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt argued that the provincial government had the power to increase the retirement age of its employees. He insisted that the decision would lessen financial burden on the province besides increasing volume of development programs. He further told the court that the situation will become normal after three years.
On the other hand the provincial government has announced challenging the PHC decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP).
