GPO worker's plea rejected who grabbed pension fund of deceased lady

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has rejected the review plea of a former worker of Lahore’s General Post Office (GPO) who had been terminated over receiving pension funds of a deceased lady for two years, ARY News reported on Friday.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial conducted hearing of a review petition filed by a former GPO employee, Naeem Akhtar, against his termination from the employment.

An official from the GPO’s department produced payments slips of the pension funds before the top court’s bench which were received by Akhtar consistently for two years.

During the hearing, Akhtar’s lawyer said that the pension money was retrieved by the department and the case is still under proceeding in the court. The counsel said that the punishment for termination from the employment was strictest despite the recovery of the pension funds.

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He added that Akhtar had served the department for 25 years. The counsel sought relaxation in the sentence from the top court.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked that the matter which is heard by the top court has nothing to do with the criminal action. Justice Umar Ata Bandial pointed out that if the petitioner has performed duties at GPO for 25 years than he has also committed a serious crime of financial fraud by receiving pension funds of a deceased lady.

Later, the court dismissed the review petition of Naeem Akhtar.

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The financial fraud of Naeem Akhtar had been caught by the audit department in 2014 and later he was terminated from his job after a departmental inquiry concluded in January 2015. The culprit had also faced suspension of review plea from the department in March 2015.

Later, Akhtar had moved to Federal Service Tribunal (FST) and the Supreme Court for the resumption of his job, however, the review pleas were also rejected in 2017 and 2018 respectively.