–Old citizens being asked to present ‘Life Certificate’ to receive retirement fund
LAHORE: Aged pensioners are becoming increasingly distressed over having to provide themselves as ‘’alive’ because banks ask them to provide a ‘Life Certificate’ on stamp paper to receive their pension.
Sources told Pakistan Today that pensioners get little help from banks who are not providing any facility, like one window operation, for the old citizens.
The pensioners have to get their Biometric Verification and Non-Marriage Certificates to get retirement fund while most of the biometric machines at the banks are not functioning, sources said, adding that in the cases of spouse of the deceased, citizens don’t get proper guidance as there is no one to provide information.
The pensioners have been warned that they will not receive pension in their accounts in case they fail to submit the required stamp papers before the date of next installment.
The biometric system in some of the banks is also not functioning and pensioners are not being guided properly about the stamp papers or from where they can get ‘Life Certificates’ while some banks are sending the aged pensioners to their department from where they had retired and some are being referred to the district courts, zila kachehri, in order to get the required documents.
78 years old pensioner Seemi Hussain while talking to this scribe showed her distress over the mismanagement and mishandling of the aged pensioners.
She said, “I have visited my bank almost five times but no one is guiding me about the required stamp papers. I was referred to the Lahore district courts to get my Life Certificate but when I reached there, they said that the bank would provide these documents.”
“I fail to understand that why a living person needs to prove through papers that he or she is alive. Can’t the bank see them in person or devise some other mechanism? It is heart-wrenching when at this age we are being asked to prove that we are alive,” she said.
“I am a widow since the last 20 years and only this time, the bank is asking me to bring in a No Marriage Certificate. Why did they never bother in the past and at once when I am 82 they thought I would remarry,” 82 years old pensioner Qudsia Saleem lamented. “There are no information desks and separate section for females in the banks.”
86 year old pensioner Shakeel Ahmed said in disappointment, “Do I need paper to prove that I am alive? The biometric machine at the bank was not working and they said that my fingerprints have vanished with the passage of time.”
“Now the bank said if I do not submit the required stamp papers then I will not be able to get my next month pension,” he said.
While talking to Pakistan Today, Punjab Accountant General Mian Shuja Zaka responded, “This is the policy of State Bank of Pakistan and they give directions to all the banks dispersing the pensions. We at AG Office are distributing pensions on time and whatever issues we receive by the pensioners, we fix them up immediately so that the old citizens do not face any problem.”
