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ISLAMABAD:
In its written response, the Ministry of Communications told the upper house of parliament that the Postal Life Insurance Company had 33,830 pending claims and outstanding claims amounting to Rs 8,165 million.
The Senate session resumed on Thursday under the chairmanship of Vice President Syedal Khan. During Question Hour, Senator Shahadat Awan sought further clarification on a question relating to postal life insurance.
The ministry said that against a budget request of Rs 8,400 million for the financial year 2025-26, only Rs 3,000 million was approved – a figure that was grossly insufficient to settle insurance claims.
The applicants include retirees and widows. The delays, the response notes, undermine public trust and constitute a breach of legal obligations.
The ministry requested an additional Rs 6 billion in the FY 2025-26 budget to clear the backlog, but the request was not fully approved. Only 3 billion rupees have been released, of which 2.75 billion rupees have already been used.
Once the remaining amount is exhausted, the ministry will request the Ministry of Finance to release Rs6.4 billion of unallocated funds. In his response, Communications Minister Aleem Khan admitted that it was the government’s incompetence and negligence.
“People were promised their money, but it was not paid. We wrote to the Ministry of Finance to release the funds, and today we are still asking for the money to be released. “These funds are not with us; they are at the Ministry of Finance. Every year we have to approach them to release funds.
