Some of the Punjab Government Servants Benevolent Fund functions have been placed under the Lahore Deputy Commissioner office which officials say was an anomaly done without amending the relevant rules.

The step was taken by the S&GAD to settle the issue, said the critics of the current move. The issue erupted when former Secretary Benevolent Fund Ahmad Mustajab Karamat relieved services of dozens of daily wagers working in the provincial fund. Karamat moved the new procedure to the then acting Additional Chief Secretary Farhan Aziz Khwaja who approved the proposal.

The DC Lahore office neither has the capacity nor set up to handle employees benevolent related matters assigned to it through an executive order by former ACS. A DC office employee confirmed the same. He said that the ADCG was to handle the issues besides his hectic assignment in the office regarding coordination

When contacted a Punjab Benevolent Fund official requesting anonymity said that the new move was to facilitate the old citizens and the widows who have to travel hundreds of miles from their residences to Lahore. The only purpose of their traveling was to make corrections in their incomplete cases, he held. Now, the officers were directed to submit their cases in their respective DC offices. However, he confirmed that the Civil Secretariat officers didn’t agree with the new move. “They want the old system whereby they used to visit the Punjab Benevolent Fund head office rather the DC office Lahore” he blamed. He said that the authority was thinking seriously to reverse the move on their reservations. He said that the Civil Secretariat officers didn’t like to visit the DC office to pursue the benevolent fund cases.

The incumbent Additional Chief Secretary Umar Rasool, he said, was willing to reverse the move. The ACS was not available to comment.

As per the details, the government servants contribute 3% of the running basic pay from their salaries for the purpose of benevolence in terms of The Punjab Government Servants Benevolent Fund, Part-II (Disbursement) Rules, 1966.

In case of death during service or unexpired period of 15 years from the date of retirement or invalidity on medical ground, the Punjab government sanctions monthly grant in favor of families of the deceased civil or invalid government servant. Besides this, marriage grant, funeral grant, farewell grant and educational scholarship from these funds are also available.

For this purpose, the provincial government has constituted Boards of Management like the Provincial Board of Management (Gazetted), the Provincial Board of Management (Non-Gazetted, District Board of Management and the Secretariat Board of Management.

The provincial Board of Management (Gazetted) is responsible for management of Part-I of the Fund and has powers to invest money credited to that part of the fund and to incur expenditure while the Provincial Board of Management (Non-Gazetted) is responsible for management of Part-Il of the fund and has powers to invest money credited to that part of the fund and to make allocations from “District Boards of Management.

An S&GAD officer said that the officials didn’t like the government efforts to ink Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an insurance company which would offer maximum benefit to the government servants. The officials fear that the government could deprive them of the post-retirement benefits, he stated.