Islamabad:

The federal government introduced the contributing pension scheme for government employees last year. However, there is now an opportunity for further delay in the implementation of the scheme for the armed forces in the upcoming federal budget for the financial year 2025-26.

The Ministry of Finance has proposed to give an exemption to military staff from the contributing pension scheme in the budget of the next financial year, sources said. However, the final approval of this proposal will be sought from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Sources said during the IMF delegation’s visit to Pakistan next month, discussions are expected to be the proposal to exempt military staff from the contributing pension scheme.

They said that armed forces staff were originally planned to be included in the scheme from July 1, 2025. The scheme had been implemented for new civilian government employees from July last year.

Sources said that no mechanism has yet been developed to include the armed forces in the scheme. Due to the lack of a defined structure and procedure, implementation is unlikely, even next year. The IMF has not established any condition that requires an immediate admission of armed forces’ staff in the scheme.

According to the contributing pension scheme, 10% of the employee’s basic salary had to be contributed by the employee, while the federal government should contribute 20% of the employee’s basic salary to the pension fund.