Old pension system restored for new hires in Sindh

Karachi: The Sindh government has abolished the previously announced Contributory Pension Scheme for government employees and reinstated the old pension system for newly recruited employees.

According to details, in September 2024, the Sindh Cabinet had approved the Sindh Defined Contributory Pension Scheme (SDCPS) for newly appointed provincial employees. Under this scheme, instead of receiving pension and gratuity, government employees were to be given a contributory pension.

As part of the scheme, each government employee was required to contribute 10% of their basic salary monthly, while the government was to contribute 12% of the employee’s basic salary.

Following cabinet approval, a formal notification was issued on November 1.

Under the leadership of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, the cabinet had also approved an amendment to the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973 in September to introduce a new clause for SDCPS 2024.

According to the proposed amendment, any individual appointed or regularized as a government employee on or after the commencement of the Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2024 would be considered a government servant entitled only to the contributory pension, excluding traditional pension and gratuity benefits.

However, one year later, on September 17, an Office Memorandum issued by the Secretary of Finance declared that the earlier memorandum from November 1, 2024, had been withdrawn. As a result, the contributory pension scheme has now been officially terminated.