Islamabad July 26 2023: President Dr Arif Alvi has directed to stop the pension of a retired Senior Auditor of the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) after he was found guilty of possessing 54 kg of baked hashish in a vehicle and was later convicted by a court.
He said that the pension of any government servant could be stopped after their retirement if the retired employee was guilty of “grave misconduct” or was “convicted of serious crime” as envisaged in Regulation 351 (1) of the Civil Service Regulations (CSR), a President House press release said.
The president rejected the representation filed by Meer Muhammad Qambrani, ex-Senior Auditor of AGPR, against the decision of the Wafaqi Mohtasib (WM) wherein it had been held that AGPR did not commit any maladministration by stopping his pension from the date of his conviction.
As per the details, Qambrani (the complainant) was implicated in a criminal case on 16-01-2011, 16 days after his retirement from government service i.e., 31-12-2010, for keeping 54 kg of baked hashish in a vehicle and was convicted under section 9(c) of the Control of Narcotics Substances Act (CNSA), 1997.
On 16-09-2011, he was sentenced to “Rigorous Imprisonment” for life with a fine of Rs 100,000 by the court of Special Judge CNS, Quetta.
The sentence of the complainant was upheld by appellate fora. The pension was paid to him from 01-01-2011 up till 15-09-2011.
Subsequently, it was stopped from the date of his conviction in the criminal case.
The complainant filed an appeal for restoration of his pension which was dismissed by AGPR as per CSR-351 rule.
Feeling aggrieved, he filed a complaint with the Wafaqi Mohtasib, which was rejected. He, then, filed a representation against the decision of WM with President Alvi.
The president, in his decision, observed that as per the judgement of the Special Judge CNS, Quetta, the accused was found in conscious possession and control of a huge quantity i.e., 54 kg baked hashish produced and articled in court, besides he had voluntarily admitted that prior to this incident, he had also been smuggling narcotics 4/5 times from Noshki to Sindh.
The president referred to CSR-351 which states that “Future good conduct is an implied condition of every grant of a pension. The local government, and the Government of Pakistan reserve to themselves the right of withholding or withdrawing a pension or any part of it, if the pensioner is convicted of a serious crime or is guilty of grave misconduct.
The decision of the president on any question of withholding or withdrawing the whole or any part of a pension under this Regulation shall be final and conclusive”.
He also referred to the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision in case 2021 SCMR-1249, wherein it had been held that “for being entitled to pension, a civil servant had to have good conduct throughout his life, which meant that he had to maintain good conduct before entering service, during the period of service, and even after retiring from service”.
The president, therefore, rejected his representation and in the exercise of his powers under Regulation 351(1) of CSR, stopped the pension of Meer Muhammad Qambrani w.e.f the date of his conviction i.e., 16-09-2011.
