LAHORE: The Lahore High Court handed the federal government a sharp judicial rebuke this week, ordering it to release full pension and retirement benefits to a senior doctor it had blocked for three years on a technicality that the court found legally unsustainable.
Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir allowed the petition of Dr Rizwan Iqbal, a retired research director who spent 34 years in Pakistan’s public health sector, rose to BPS-19, and walked away in August 2020 with a retirement order and a provident fund payment but no pension, and no gratuity.
The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination had refused to process those benefits through a letter dated June 4, 2022. Its argument rested entirely on the fact that Dr Iqbal’s original 1986 appointment carried an ad hoc designation that the department never formally converted into a regular one.
Also Read: Interpol Issues Red Notices Against Malik Riaz and Son
LHC Pension Case Favors Retired Doctor
Dr Iqbal entered the civil service in 1986 as a graduate doctor of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. The two organizations Dr Iqbal served were Pakistan Medical Research Council and Pakistan Health Research Council, which is the successor of the former organization. Departmental promotion committees cleared him repeatedly. The Cabinet Division endorsed those promotions. He held permanent posts at every stage of his career.
For three and a half decades, no authority raised any question about his employment status. The government promoted him, posted him against permanent positions, and extracted 34 years of research work from him. It then invoked his original ad hoc status the moment he sought his pension.
Justice Shabir called the situation peculiar. He noted that none of the promotion orders described Dr Iqbal’s status as temporary. Cabinet Division endorsements of those promotions made the government’s position difficult to defend.
The Legal Reasoning
The court held that whatever defect existed in Dr Iqbal’s initial appointment, it stood cured long ago by the combination of consistent promotions, uninterrupted service, and permanent postings, all approved without objection by the very authorities now refusing his pension.
Justice Shabir drew on established Supreme Court precedent. Authorities cannot take advantage of their own administrative failures, the court observed, particularly when those failures unfolded over decades during which the government continued drawing full benefit from the employee’s services.
The judge applied Regulation 14 of the PMRC Service Regulations. It states that an eligible employee cannot lose pension benefits due to delayed confirmation.
A jurisdictional challenge mounted by the respondents under the National Institute of Health Reorganisation Act 2021 failed at the threshold. Justice Shabir ruled the legislation carries no retrospective force over a retirement that preceded its enactment.
The Order
The court declared the ministry’s June 2022 refusal letter unlawful and stripped it of legal effect. The court directed authorities to treat Dr Iqbal’s services as regularised. It also ordered the immediate release of all pension and retirement benefits. The federal government spent three years defending a position the court dismantled in a single judgment.
