SHANGLA: Pensioners in Shangla have demanded resumption of the government employees` group insurance scheme, which has been suspended for two years.

The demand was made at a meeting held at Alpuri on Tuesday and chaired by former district education of ficer and divisional president of All Pakistan pensioners association, Bakht Afsar.

Mohmmad Younas, the association`s Shangla president, also spoke on the occasion.

They said since the government employees` group insurance scheme remained suspended since 2014 cases pertaining to retirement benefits and death compensation could not be processed, depriving pensioners of the much-needed payments. They said orphans and widows of the government servants were hard hit due to suspension of the programme.

Bakht Afsar pointed out that certain amounts were paid to the families on the basic pay-scale of their bread earners, but the current government had suspended the initiative for unknown reasons.

Mohammad Younas said the government should evolve a mechanism on immediate basis to address financial issues of the aggrieved families. Correspondent