The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), a government-run think tank under the Planning Commission, has discovered that 115,000 unverified retired employees of the Pakistan Railways (PR) have been receiving Rs. 35 billion in pensions annually.
It issued a statement yesterday detailing that Pakistan Railways suffered losses worth Rs. 144 billion between 2015 and 2020. The losses include an Rs. 44 billion deficit in 2020 including Rs. 36 billion for the pensions of 120,000 PR employees.
The PR also received a subsidy of Rs. 45 billion from the government in 2020 to overcome these losses, as per the PIDE report.
The stiff competition from road transport and the inability of PR to adopt a customer-centric business plan because of complex bureaucratic structure has led to an inefficient, underfinanced, and overstaffed public agency running in losses for the last three and a half decades.
The report also highlighted that “there are 115,000 unverified retirees of PR, who are paid Rs. 35 billion annually”.
A biometric verification system to verify the pensioners in question has been proposed to rectify the issue.
Furthermore, a Pay and Pension Commission (PPC) has been constituted in this regard and it will consider such matters of the railways and other public enterprises.
The PIDE report also proposed revolutionary institutional reforms for PR as it is listed in the country’s top 10 loss-making state-owned enterprises. Additionally, its losses can potentially be reframed to make them transparent to all its employees.
Ministery of Railway will be fully responsible such an act. people wants justice . awam ka paisa hy ye , eik eik rupay ka hisaab dyna hoga inko.. yahan nhin to akhirat me hi.