Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has shown support for increasing the retirement age for government employees from 60 to 62 years. He discussed this idea during a Senate Finance Committee meeting, explaining that the goal is to reduce the growing burden of pension payments on the national budget.
Aurangzeb also mentioned that the government is already working on a new pension system called the Defined Contributory Pension scheme. This system will apply to civilians and is expected to improve how pensions are managed in the future.
Several senators, including Farooq H. Naek and Anusha Rehman, agreed with the suggestion. They even proposed that the retirement age could go higher than 62 in some cases.
They said that many people in the judiciary and private sector continue working into their late 60s and 70s, and the government should also make use of the experience and skills of senior bureaucrats by keeping them in service longer.
However, the finance minister also pointed out that this change might not save a lot of money. That’s because a large portion of the country’s pension expenses are for military personnel, who usually retire at a younger age than civilians. So, raising the retirement age for government staff will only affect a small part of the overall pension bill.
Still, the proposal is seen as one step toward fixing the country’s pension system and reducing financial pressure on the government in the long run.
