Ten years of continuous service from contract appointment to regularisation to be counted for pension, Lahore High Court
The Lahore High Court has issued an important ruling regarding the pensions of government employees, ordering that ten years of continuous service of an employee who was regularised after five years of continuous contract service be counted for pension purposes.
The court upheld an order granting pension and other benefits to the widow of a deceased government employee and dismissed the Punjab government’s appeal. A two-member bench headed by Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir issued the decision dismissing the appeal.
According to the judgment, the woman’s husband was appointed as a Naib Qasid on a contract basis in the Health Department in 2005 and was regularised in 2010. The employee died in 2016.
The Punjab government’s position was that ten years of service was required to qualify for pension and other benefits, and that the service had to be regular. It argued that the period of contract service could not be counted for pension purposes.
The court ruled that the employee had served continuously on a contract basis for five years and was subsequently regularised. Therefore, in the present case, the continuous service from his contract appointment until regularisation would be counted for pension purposes.
Referring to a Supreme Court judgment, the court said that if the contract service had not been continuous and the employee had subsequently been regularised, the contract service would not have been counted.
The court ruled that the deceased employee’s widow was entitled to pension and other benefits. It also upheld the single bench’s decision as lawful and dismissed the Punjab government’s appeal.
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