Pensioners demand 100% increase in medical allowance

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: The Lower Dir chapter of the All Pakistan Pensioners’ Association on Wednesday demanded the government to increase their monthly pension and medical allowance according to the current inflation. The demand was made during a meeting of the association held at Timergara with its president Malik Abdul Hameed in the chair.
The government retired employees from various departments attended the meeting which was addressed by Malik Abdul Hameed, Shah Bacha, Kabul Khan, Muhammad Khan, Bacha Zamin and others. They said the government announced recently an increase in the salaries of in-service government workers from grade 1 to 19 but totally ignored the pensioners. They said the government decision had spread panic and anger among the retired government employees who had to feed their families within their limited pensions.
The speakers said they had been facing difficulties due to growing inflation and hike in prices of medicines and food items. They said that most of the pensioners had chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and respiratory disorders while prices of the essential medicines had been increased many fold. The speakers said that the majority of the pensioners had served the country and the nation for more than 40 years and now they got a meager pension.
They demanded a 100 per cent increase in the medical allowance of the pensioners and a monthly pension so that they could lead an honourable life in society. The meeting also rejected the stoppage of double pension to couples and demanded of the government to review the decision and provide pension to both wife and husband on their retirement from government services. The participants threatened to stage a protest sit-in in front of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly at Peshawar if their demand was not met.