The Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned secretaries of the labour departments of all the provinces and the federal secretary Manpower and Human Development to appear on April 24 and inform what amount they could pay as pension to the workers.
The court also expressed dismay over the amount paid to the pensioners under the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI).
A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, while hearing EOBI pensioners case, noted that the pension of Rs5,250 per month was not acceptable to the court.”Our concern is baseline figure,” Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed asked the advocate generals of all the provinces. “Don’t tell the court that governments did not have money,” he added.
He said he knows from where the money could be saved and contributed for the EOBI funds. “We have to solve the pensioners problems, thus don’t tell us that they have filed application in this regard,” he remarked.
Additional advocate generals of Punjab and Sindh informed the bench that their provinces were ready for devolution of the EOBI. However, KP and Balochistan opposed the proposal. They informed the court that their labourers work in Punjab and Sindh but after the retirement settle down in their own provinces.
Punjab AAG Asma Hamid informed the court that pension system in the province has been computerized. She requested the court to direct the federal government to pay Punjab province its pending pension payments.
Earlier, Deputy Attorney General Sohail Mehmood informed the court that finance ministry has deposited Rs3.76 billion in the account of EOBI. The federal government had taken this amount from the EOBI funds for the flood victims.
Saiful Malook, representing EOBI, said that the cheques submitted by M/S Nawaz Ahmed Mehas of Rs286 million and Eden Garden Housing Ltd of Rs22 million in the court had bounced. The court granted four weeks to both the entities to make the payment to EOBI otherwise criminal action would be taken against them.
Established in 1976 during the PPP government, the EOBI operates under a mechanism whereby employees contribute 1% of their salary each month and the employer 5% to the institute. EOBI is responsible for remunerating the employees upon their retirement. EOBI is also authorised to invest money to increase its capital.
Published in Daily Times, April 18th 2018.
