Retired Afghan government employees protest against non-payment of pensions

Kabul: Retired employees of the Afghanistan Government staged a protest against the non-payment of their pensions on Saturday. They asked the Taliban government to pay their pensions.

The former employees of the government have not been paid for many months. Some of them are still the only earning members of their families.

68-year-old Mohammad Daud told Tolo News that he is the breadwinner for a family of 13. And he has worked for the government for 30 years in the municipality department. "We call on the Islamic Emirate to provide us with our rights. We have nothing, just honour our rights, we are about to die from starvation."

The wife of another retiree Gul Jan said her sons are working as labourers but each of them has 10 children. "One of them feeds me breakfast, another feeds me dinner. I sold all of my appliances in the house to buy my medicine." Military veterans of the former Afghan government led by Ashraf Ghani are also struggling with similar financial problems.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) said the administration is working on a plan to facilitate the payment of retirees' pensions and it has been shared with the PM's office. A spokesperson of the MoF Ahmad Wali Haqmal said the ministry is waiting for the decree of the PM to act accordingly.

"There were some challenges, and we solved them and made a plan with the cooperation of the Science Academy and sent it to the council of ministers and they will discuss that today, and after the approval of that plan we will start to pay pensioners," he added.

According to MoF, four billion afghanis is allocated for pensions.