Retirement age limit

Khyber Pukhtunkhwa government has decided to increase the superannuation limit for the retirement of government official from 60 years to 63 years. The Finance department has formulated a policy about the retirement of half a million government employees to control the expenditure on pension and benefits related to it. Media report reveals that a letter has been sent to the federal government which has the prerogative of taking appropriate decision in this regard.

The proposal of upward revision of retirement age had come under the consideration of previous PPP government but was not approved because its demerits outweighed its merits. The unemployment rate is constantly on the rise and every year one million people enter the job market. There is also a problem of underemployment confronting the educated youth as they are not getting jobs compatible with their qualification. In the NTS test conducted for different cadres of school teachers last year a large number of candidates who were holding PhD and M Phil degrees in basic sciences and humanities disciplines of knowledge also participated. A number of candidates with degrees in engineering, agriculture and management sciences had also appeared in the test and got impressive scores. The candidates who secured top positions on the basis of schools they selected were entitled for contract appointment. The ones who did not grab top positions in the schools they preferred did not fall in the appointment criteria despite high ranking in the over all merit. The problem of unemployment is so sever that the scholars enrolled in PhD programmes are knocking at the doors private schools to get teaching jobs at paltry amount of emoluments of less than Rs.20000 but with no positive outcome. The educated youth need strong reference even in private organist ions to get employment. Upward revision of retirement age limit will make worse the unemployment situation in the province. It will also accelerate the current trend of brain drain.