IEA decrees creation of pension rights courts

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) leadership has issued a new decree, directing the Supreme Court to set up special pension rights courts to deal with cases of retired employees.

On May 1, the caretaker government leadership in a decree asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to stop the deduction of pension from salaries of military personnel and civil servants.

The ministry was also asked to provide a report regarding present employees in IEA office, their joining dates and amounts deducted from their pay under pension.

Retired government servants have repeatedly urged the interim government to pay their pensions deducted from their salaries.

They explained they did not receive their pensions after the interim government’s takeover. Now the IEA leadership has issued a decree in this regard.

Pajhwok Afghan News has obtained a copy of the eight-article decree regarding the implementation of the pension rights of retired and current employees of the ministries and entities.

According to the first article of the decree, the Supreme Court is obliged to establish special pension rights courts in order to decide the cases of retired employees of Islamic sharia.

Link to read complete decree

Clause one of article second stated, the officials of ministries and the IEA authorities could refer to special courts for their pension rights.

The first clause of article fifth of the aforementioned decree stated that the Organization and Salary Regulation Commission was obligated to set a schedule for the issuance of pensions for retirees in order to prevent pressure on the general budget.

Article sixth of this decree stated that the provisions of articles 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this decree were applicable to retirees who retired before the second takeover of the IEA.

Clause first of the article seventh directed MoF to issue already deposited pension rights of employees for the period after the takeover of the IEA till the issuance of decree No. 4802 of March 28, 2024.

Clause two of the same article stated: “Non-budgetary units such as municipalities are obliged to issue pensions rights of employees for the period after the takeover of the IEA till the issuance of decree No. 4802 March 28, 2024, through relevant budgetary units.”

Article fifth of the decree stated situation that belonged to the clauses 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this article did not require to be referred to the special retirement court.

The media office of the Supreme Court (SC) told Pajhwok Afghan News that they received the retirement decree and the issues in this regard would be addressed soon.

According to the information of the Afghanistan Retired Persons Union, there are 170,000 retired persons in the country.

Kk/aw/nh