Retired people in Afghanistan protest in Kabul over unpaid pensions

They claimed they have not been paid for the past 16 months.

The rally was conducted by retirees from military and civil servants of previous governments who said they are faced with severe challenges amid freezing winter, reports Tolo News.

“There is nothing to heat our rooms. I pay 4,000 Afs for house rent and we are three families. I have my daughter-in-law with me, and we have nothing to eat,” Alina, a former government employee, told the news portal.

The protesters asked the Taliban government to pay their pensions.

“If we say their children are affected by malnutrition, you can go and check it at their houses,” said Meer Alam, a retiree.

“It has been around one and a half years since the Islamic Emirate gave us promises to pay our pensions, but we are yet to be paid,” Zabiullah, a retiree, told Tolo News.

“We have served this country with honesty. We are all facing economic challenges and all of us have families,” said Mohammad Omar, a retiree.

The Ministry of Finance said it has prepared a plan for payment of pensions to the retirees and that they are waiting for its approval by relevant authorities.

“We have allocated around four billion Afghanis for the retirees in the (fiscal) budget of the current year. We are waiting for its approval. The payments will be the same as in the past based on accounts and their cards,” Ahmad Wali Haqmal, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance told Tolo News.