Claim: A viral Whatsapp forward message claims that the government has passed a bill which will result in government employees receiving pensions according to their basic salary when they were recruited, instead of their last salary slip.
Fact: No bill has been passed or proposed by the government that would result in a significant decrease in government pensions.
On 12 June 2023, Soch Fact Check was forwarded a Whatsapp message claiming that the government has passed a bill which will drastically reduce the pensions of public servents. The message further claims the bill will result in government employees receiving pensions according to their basic salary when they were recruited, instead of their last salary slip.
The message reads, “The government has passed a bill that will drastically affect the pensions of public servants. Under the previous law, a public servant’s pension was based on their final salary. For instance, a constable who started at grade 7 with a base salary of 16,350 rupees and worked for 40 years would have a final salary of 70,000 rupees and a pension of the same amount. However, the new policy states that the pension will be calculated from the initial base salary, which means the same constable would only receive 16,350 rupees as pension. This eliminates any incentive to work for long years in public service. The government has betrayed the public servants by introducing this bill. I urge you to verify your service record and demand the government to revoke its decision. Otherwise, you will face a bleak future when you retire. Please share this message with every group that has public servants as members.”
The Pakistani government announced a new budget for the fiscal year 2023-24, which included an increase in the minimum pension amount. Additionally, employees in grades 1-16 will witness a 35% raise, while those above grade 17 will receive a 30% increment.
This increase is contradictory to the claim made in the viral Whatsapp forward message. Therefore, Soch Fact Check, decided to investigate the claim that the government has passed such a bill.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check searched for any official notification or announcement from the government regarding the alleged bill but did not find any. We also searched for news reports or statements from government officials or representatives of government employees’ associations about the bill, but again found nothing.
We contacted the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for overseeing the pension policy of federal government employees. A spokesperson from the ministry denied that any such bill had been passed or proposed by the government. They said the pension policy was based on the basic pay scale (BPS) of employees at the time of their retirement and that there was no plan to change it.
The spokesperson also said that such a policy would be illogical and unfair to the government employees, who have worked for years and received promotions and increments in their salaries. They further stated that the pension was meant to provide some financial security and dignity to retired employees, and reducing it based on their initial salaries would be against the principles of natural justice and social welfare.
We also searched for news coverage of such a policy or bill by mainstream media outlets but did not find any. The news search results we found were either about other countries’ pension policies or unrelated topics. If such a policy or bill was passed by the Pakistani government, it would have been reported by the media, which it was not.
Virality
The WhatsApp forward was labelled “forwarded many times”.
Conclusion: The WhatsApp forward claiming that the government has passed a bill which will result in a huge decrease in public servants’ pensions is false. No such bill has been passed or proposed by the government.
To appeal our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com