ISLAMABAD(National times)- The Federal Constitutional Court has directed the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) to pay pensions to private-sector employees who completed 14 and a half years of service. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Ameenuddin Khan, ruled that employees who have completed less than 15 years but at least 14 and a half years of service are entitled to a pension. The court dismissed all appeals filed by EOBI and upheld the Lahore High Court’s verdicts of 2024 and 2025. In a written judgment issued by Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, the court stated that any service period of six months or more would be treated as a full year. It declared the Lahore High Court’s decisions to be correct and said there was no room for interference. The constitutional court further ruled that EOBI’s 2022 circular could not override pension rights. It observed that depriving employees of pensions through a rigid interpretation of welfare laws was unjust. The court clarified that employees with more than 14 and a half years of service would be considered as having completed 15 years, and the principle of rounding off would apply in pension matters.