Federal insurance

A federal government employee who dies while in service, his family is entitled to get group insurance money in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance Act, 1969. But such an employee does not get even a single penny of group insurance money at the time of retirement. This is because the afore-said law does not provide for payment of group insurance money to a retiring federal employee in spite of the fact that he continues paying the group insurance premia/ contribution from his monthly salary during the entirety of service till the date of retirement.

Contrary to this, the provincial governments of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had enacted laws namely Act No 10 of 2009 and XXVIII of 2014 under which they have been paying the group insurance money to their retiring employees since 2009 and 2014 respectively. A similar demand being pursued by the employees of Punjab and Sindh provinces is likely to be accepted in near future. The Federal Employees Benevolent & Group Insurance Funds management which is the custodian of the 1969 Act is however, reluctant to amend the said law so as to prevent the insurance funds from being spent on the retiring federal employees. This is grossly unjust. Therefore, we request adviser to the PM for establishment affairs to direct the funds management to amend the law of 1969 so that the federal government employees can draw group insurance money on retirement like the government employees of the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

M Sharafat Ali Zia

Islamabad