FCC rules 15 years of contributions mandatory for EOBI pension

• The court accepted EOBI’s appeal in a pension case involving less than six years of insured employment.
• It ruled that sympathy or fairness cannot replace the legal requirements for pension eligibility.
• Orders issued by the Federal Ombudsman, the president and the Islamabad High Court were set aside.

The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has ruled that a person must meet the statutory eligibility requirements to receive an Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pension, including the mandatory 15 years of contributions.

Accepting EOBI’s appeal, the court overturned orders granting a pension to Javed Iqbal Bhatti, whose period of insured employment was less than six years.

The 12-page written judgment, authored by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, stated that sympathy or considerations of fairness cannot establish pension entitlement where the requirements prescribed by law have not been fulfilled.

The court also clarified that describing a pension dispute as maladministration does not, by itself, bring it within the Federal Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. An order issued without jurisdiction cannot become legally valid merely because it is subsequently upheld by the president or a court.

According to the judgment, the rejection of a pension application alone does not constitute maladministration. The court further stressed that providing reasons for a decision is a substantive requirement, requiring the relevant legal basis to be clearly explained.

Bhatti had taken his complaint to the Federal Ombudsman after EOBI rejected his pension application. The ombudsman directed the institution to grant him a pension, a decision later upheld by the president and the Islamabad High Court.

EOBI challenged those decisions before the FCC, which accepted its appeal and set aside the orders of the ombudsman, the president and the Islamabad High Court.