Islamabad:
The federal government introduced the contributory retirement plan for government employees last year. However, there is now a possibility of additional delay in the implementation of the regime for the armed forces in the next federal budget for the year 2025-20126.
The Ministry of Finance proposed to grant an exemption to the military staff of the contributory retirement plan in the next budget of the financial year, sources said. However, the final approval of this proposal will be requested from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Sources indicated during the IMF visit to Pakistan next month, discussions are planned for the proposal to exempt military staff from the contributory pension plan.
They declared that the staff of the armed forces should initially be included in the program from July 1, 2025. The program had been implemented for new employees of the civil government from July from last year.
Sources have said that no mechanism had yet been developed to include the armed forces in the program. Due to the absence of a defined structure and procedure, the implementation is unlikely even next year. The IMF has not set any condition requiring the immediate inclusion of the staff of the armed forces in the regime.
According to the contributory pension plan, 10% of the employee’s basic salary was to be provided by the employee, while the federal government was to contribute 20% of the employee’s basic salary to the retirement fund.
