ISLAMABAD: The proposal for increasing the age limit of government employees has fizzled out mainly because of stiff opposition from all relevant and powerful quarters, it is learnt. For the time being, this proposal for jacking up the age limit of all public sector employees, including civil and military workforce as well as for judiciary, is not going to be implemented and it would be argued that some more spadework needed to be done before finalising any such proposal.
However, Islamabad is all set to abolish ministries of devolved subjects in a phased manner and the proposal is under consideration to convince the provinces to share the burden of social protection initiatives such as the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).
It is yet to see how the government tackles the budgetary allocation of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the rationalisation of expenditure exercise. The government has constituted a high-powered committee under Minister for Finance Mohammad Aurangzeb to rationalise unbridled government expenditures, and it was expected that the committee would finalise its findings till the announcement of the budget.
Still, nothing has come out of it so far. The committee has held several deliberations to finalise its recommendations by end of July or first week of August. The government may announce its findings around August 14.
Top official sources said that the possibility of increasing the age limit from the retirement age of 60 years to 62 or 63 for civilian employees and others as well had diminished so far, but other proposals on pension reforms were still intact such as provisions of payment of pensions for generation might be abolished.
On May 7, 2024, three federal ministers, law, finance and information & broadcasting, shared a plan to finalise the pension package for implementing it across the board including jacking up the age limit for all public servants such as the armed forces, judiciary, and civilian employees.
