IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(APPELLATE JURISDICTION) 
 
 
PRESENT: 
MR. JUSTICE MUSHIR ALAM 
MR. JUSTICE FAISAL ARAB 
MR. JUSTICE MUNIB AKHTAR 
 
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 1189 OF 2017 
(On appeal against the judgment dated 13.03.2017 
passed by the High Court of Sindh, Karachi in C.P. 
No. D-4291/2015) 
 
Syeda Sakina Riaz 
… Appellant 
VERSUS 
 
Federation of Pakistan and another 
… Respondents 
 
For the Appellant:  
Syed Fiaz Ahmed Shah, ASC 
 
 
 
 
 
For the Respondent (1): Mr. Sohail Mahmood, DAG 
 
For the Respondent (2): Mr. Shoaib M. Ashraf, ASC 
 
 
Date of Hearing:  
22.05.2018 
 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
 
 
FAISAL ARAB, J.- When appellant’s late husband 
died in a fatal car accident on 11.01.2012 he was working as an 
Assistant Controller in BPS-18 in the examination department of 
the University of Karachi. By then he had served the university 
only for about five years so his tenure in office was well short of the 
minimum qualifying service which would have made her widow 
eligible to claim family pension under the University of Karachi 
Service Pension Statute, 1972. To seek family pension, the 
appellant sought recourse to the Prime Minister’s Family 
Assistance 
Package 
notification 
No.7/40/2005-E-2 
dated 
13.06.2006 which inter alia granted a lump-sum payment as well 
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Civil Appeal No.1189/2017 
as enhanced pensionary benefits to the families of the federal 
government employees who die while in service. This package was 
made applicable to the families of the university’s employees as 
well by virtue of its adoption by the syndicate of the university on 
15.01.2008. The appellant was though paid the lump-sum grant of 
Rs.800,000/- as provided in the package but the claim for grant of 
family pension was denied for the reason that her husband had 
not put in the minimum qualifying service of ten years as 
envisaged under Section 26 of the University of Karachi Service 
Pension Statute, 1972. 
 
2. 
 
Having failed to seek family pension on the basis of the 
family assistance package, the appellant invoked the constitutional 
jurisdiction of the High Court of Sindh seeking directions to the 
University to grant her family pension. Such relief was not only 
sought under the family assistance package that was in force at 
the time of her husband’s death but in terms of family assistance 
package that was subsequently revised by the federal government 
on 20.10.2014. The university contested her claim primarily on the 
ground that her husband had not put in the minimum of ten year 
qualifying service to make his service pensionable so she was not 
entitled to claim any concession towards pension under the family 
assistance package. The appellant’s petition was dismissed. The 
reasons that prevailed with the High Court in denying the relief to 
the appellant was that her petition was not maintainable as the 
university’s pension law was not statutory and that her deceased 
husband had not put in minimum qualifying service as envisaged 
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under Section 26 of University of Karachi Service Pension Statute, 
1972 in order to become entitled for family pension. 
 
3. 
 
Right to claim pension is a right connected with the 
tenure of service which under the applicable pension rules has to 
be served by an employee in order to make him eligible for pension. 
Where a deceased employee has put in pensionable service, only 
then his family becomes entitled to pension. So in order to claim 
pension, a minimum qualifying service is the threshold that has to 
be first crossed which would then entitle an employee or his family 
after his death to claim pension. The right to claim pension cannot 
be equated with an insurance policy that becomes enforceable due 
to an event that occurs even before its maturity date as right to 
claim pension is always attached to a specified term of office which 
an employee has to put in i.e. it is a benefit which is earned by an 
employee as a result of giving service to an employer for a specified 
number of years. Employees do die before completing qualifying 
length of service. It has been happening in the past and is likely to 
happen in the future. Unfortunately, those who do not cross the 
threshold of minimum qualifying service, their service falls short of 
being regarded as pensionable service. It’s very disappointing for 
the families of the employees who die while in service without 
completing 
minimum 
qualifying 
service. 
Nevertheless, 
this 
principle of completing minimum qualifying service is ingrained in 
every law that grants pension to the employees or after their death 
to their families. Thus this principle is based on ‘quid pro quo’, 
which mandates that an employee must put in minimum 
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qualifying years of service before he becomes entitled to claim 
pensionary benefits.  
 
4.  
 
The above discussed principle is clearly depicted in the 
provisions of the University of Karachi Service Pension Statute, 
1972 which provides four categories or classes of pension. These 
have been described as (i)  Superannuation Pension which 
becomes payable on attaining 60 years of age; (ii) Retiring Pension, 
where an employee opts to retire after putting  in 25 years 
qualifying service or such less time as has been prescribed for any 
special class of employees or is compulsorily retired by the 
authority competent to remove him from service; (iii) Compensation 
Pension which is granted to an employee on account of abolition of 
his permanent post or on account of change in the nature of duties 
of his post and who has not opted to accept another post and (iv) 
Invalid Pension where an employee on account of bodily or mental 
infirmity has been permanently incapacitated from rendering 
further service. The death of an employee before his retirement can 
be equated with this last category i.e. Invalid Pension. For all these 
four categories of pension, the condition precedent is rendition of 
minimum length of service. It is for this reason that Section 26 of 
the University of Karachi Service Pension Statute, 1972 proceeds 
by stating “After a qualifying service of not less than 10 years, full 
superannuation, retiring, invalid or compensation pension may be 
granted…..” Therefore, rendering of qualifying service is a 
prerequisite for claiming pension. Unless an employee of the 
university renders minimum qualifying service his family upon his 
death cannot become entitled to claim family pension or any other 
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Civil Appeal No.1189/2017 
privilege that is attached with pensionary rights. The family 
assistance package, in so far as it relates to pension, has only 
enhanced the quantum of family pension that is payable under the 
law of pension. It cannot be read to convert a non-pensionable 
service into a pensionable service.  
 
5. 
 
In the present case admittedly the late husband of the 
appellant had put in only about five years of service, well short of 
rendering qualifying length of service which only would have 
entitled his widow to claim any concession granted towards the 
quantum of pension. As stated earlier, only where a person renders 
qualifying service under pension rules that he becomes eligible for 
any further concession that may be granted towards pension from 
time to time. Thus the University’s family assistance package, in so 
far as it relates to enhanced pensionary benefits, was payable to 
the family of such deceased employee who had rendered minimum 
qualifying service in his lifetime under the provisions of the 
University of Karachi Service Pension Statute, 1972. This appeal, 
therefore, fails, which is hereby dismissed.  
 
JUDGE 
 
JUDGE 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
 
Islamabad, the 
Announced on 01.06.2018 by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Faisal Arab 
 
Approved For Reporting 
Khurram 
