The plight of the Pensioners of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA )

A Story of Discrimination and Injustice

CAA retired employees Appeal to the Government to remove this discrimination and provide justice to all

(Karachi) :  The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA) is a state-owned autonomous body under the administrative control of the Secretary to the Government of Pakistan for Aviation, which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in Pakistan. The Department of Civil Aviation was transformed into the Civil Aviation Authority in 1982 and it formed its pay structure for CAA employees and also adopted Government Pension Rules and Procedures for their old and new retired employees.

The 1^st regulations were made in 1983 and later were superseded by Regulations 2000 and Regulations 2014 (revised in 2019) which are applicable to date.

It is a matter of a surprise that a government-autonomous body that has the pensions and disbursement for retired employees under “ Pay and Pension and TA/DA Regulations 2014 ( Revised 2019) “ is being implemented through the Independent Pension Trust created by CAA without the consent and approval of the government which is discriminatory. The method/formula adopted from the beginning for disbursement of Pension under the Service Regulations was according to the Federal Government Notifications approved by the Presidential Orders from time to time.But in 2020 due to some misunderstanding of the then DG CAA (Mr. Khaqan Murtaza) in the interpretation of the Rules/Regulations about pension, the increase in pension announced by the President of Pakistan (Federal Government) in the year 2021,2022,2023 was only given to the pensioners/retirees who were retired on or before 1st July2014 and denied to the pensioners/retirees who retired after 1st July2014 till 30th June2022.

At this stage, two groups of pensioners have come into existence.

1. Pensioners before July 2014 getting all the increases announced by Federal Government/Presidential Orders todate.
2. Pensioners on or after 1st July 2014 who have not been allowed increases in pension under Federal Government/Presidential Orders announced in 2021,2022 and 2023.
3. The employees of CAA who retired on and after 1st July 2022 were denied previous increases in pension without an increase in pay scales/ pay revision, which is against the basic principle of pension procedures adopted during the pay revision. Thus,this results in 3rd category of pensioners getting less pension as compared to the retirees who retired on or before 30th June2022 with the same basic pay.
4. Similarly, the employees who retired on or after 1st July2023 also meet the same fate although they were given a 10% pay increase

Following discriminatory, injustice and ugly situations arose due to this decision:

1. a) Due to the above-mentioned facts, discrimination among the pensioners has been created in one organizationi.e. CAA governed under one set of Rules/Regulations.
2. b) The disbursement of pension is from CAA’s own Pay/Pension Fund (without any grant or allocation from the Federal Government).

The following suggestions are being given to resolve this problem:

Pension Increases: The matter may kindly be looked into and can be resolved by implementing the procedure for increases in pension to all pensioners as adopted and implemented for the retirees/pensioners who have retired on or before 30th June2014.

Pension calculation for retirees w.e.f on and after 1st July2022, may be given the same treatment in pension calculation as given to the pensioners who have retired on or before 30th June2022/as per laid down pension procedures.