Staff Shortage, Inadequate Branches Irk Pensioners in AJK

News Desk

Islamabad: Staff shortage and inadequate number of branches at the National Savings have irked pensioners and investors across the country, including AJK.

This administrative and management crisis started when the Finance Ministry transferred the system of saving banks and pensions from the Pakistan Post to the National Savings as the latter wasn’t ready to handle this burden, an official, who requested not to be named, appointed at the Central Directorate of National Savings said on Thursday.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) was affected the most as there were only four branches in the entire state to deal with the pension cases from 10 districts, the official said. Such circumstances have made it impossible for the staff to properly serve the customers, he added.

Ghulam Mustafa, a retired soldier from the Pakistan army, said that he came to Rawalakot from his hometown Abbaspur, which is more than 100 kilometer away, to collect his pension, but frustratingly the branch was closed when his turn came.

“I, along with 50 to 60 other pensioners, spent the whole night outside the National Savings Rawalakot Branch to collect my pension on the next day,” he said.

 Mustafa added that people from adjacent areas had to reach the branch at night to be able to receive pension on the next day.

Another official of the National Savings informed that the Rawalakot Branch was headed by a grade 14 official instead of a grade 17 officer.

The branch has heavy foreign investment but the investors face huge problems as the branch manager is running the branch under his self-made rules provided that he is taking only 20 cases of Post Office transfers daily, he added.

The official further said that National Savings was running without a permanent director general (DG) which had affected the overall functionality and performance of the organization.

To solve the problems faced by the investors and pensioners in the AJ&K, the official suggested that the National Savings should post gazetted officers as branch managers and increase the number of staff and branches in each district to ensure smooth operations.

Moreover, pensioners held a protest demonstration a few days ago outside the National Savings Rawalakot Branch and demanded the Finance Secretary to take necessary actions to undo the illegalities and violations of rules being made by the National Savings officials in AJ&K.