Cabinet rejects proposal to raise retirement age of freedom fighters

The Cabinet has rejected a proposal to raise the retirement age for freedom fighters in government services to 65, despite a Supreme Court order.

This means that freedom fighters still in service must retire at 60.

“This government has once raised their retirement age from 57 to 60. So raising it again was not considered," Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said.

The decision was taken at Monday’s regular Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The public administration ministry had placed the proposal before the Cabinet following a Supreme Court order in November last year.

The Prime Minister’s Office, in a memorandum in July 2006, asked that the Liberation War affairs ministry place a proposal before the Cabinet, seeking an increase in freedom fighters’ retirement age from 57 to 65.

Secretary Alam on Monday said that the memorandum was not put before the Cabinet as it was not approved by the (then) chief adviser.

When the PMO's order was not carried out, freedom fighter Jamal Uddin Shikdar in 2013 moved the High Court, which issued a rule asking why the retirement age ceiling would not be raised to 65.

Sikhdar's petition was later backed by 680 freedom fighters.

The court, through an order on Jan 14 last year, told the respondents to place before the Cabinet the proposal within 60 days of receiving the copies of the order.

The Supreme Court, too, upheld the High Court order when the State moved the top appeals court against the petition.

However, even as the High Court was hearing the petition, the government in its last tenure extended the freedom fighters’ retirement age to 59 from 57.

The retirement age for other government employees at the time was 57, but it was later raised to 59.

The government extended the retirement age for freedom fighters by another year, to 60, in 2012 following another petition.

The draft of the National e-Service Act was also placed before the Cabinet on Monday, but the meeting decided to have it vetted again, said Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam.