KARACHI: Due to alleged negligence of the government, the EOBI board is in existence despite the passage of seven years to its tenure. Several key posts, including the chairman, have fallen vacant, due to which deputation and junior officers are ruling the EOBI and retired workers and widows of their pensions.
Ministry of Overseas Pakistani Development and Human Resources Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution EOBI, a subordinate department of the Government of Pakistan, has become ineffective due to the persistent inattention of the Federal Government. Established in 1976 with the aim of registering employers and employees of all types of entities serving in private companies in EOBI and paying them a minimum wage of 6% of their wages. By receiving a monthly contribution, these registered employees were to be given a lifelong pension in case of retirement or disability and in case of their death their widows.
Despite the expiration of the two-year term of the EOBI Board of Trustees, which was constituted in November 2013, due to the persistent inattention and negligence of the Federal Government, no new Board has been constituted for the last seven years. Due to which legal issues are arising. Similarly, after the transfer of EOBI Chairman Shakeel Ahmed Mangnejo on April 27, this important and key post has become vacant.
Similarly, after the transfer of Aqeel Ahmed Siddiqui, Director General Operations, Sindh Balochistan and Ijaz-ul-Haq, Director General Operations, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan and Din Muhammad Chakrani Investment Advisor, these three key posts in the company have also become vacant. These top officials are appointed by the federal government for a period of three years. Due to this worrisome situation, the EOBI’s Department of Operations and Pension Fund Trust’s profitable investment system is being severely affected.
The EOBI is facing a shortage of manpower due to the rapid retirement of its employees and the lack of new recruits. But the solution to these serious problems and the national welfare institution is being run under ad hocism instead of on a permanent basis. Under which top officers and highly junior but influential officers posted on deputation are ruling in very key positions.
On the contrary, senior, experienced and deserving officers and employees of the organization are being deliberately deprived of their legitimate promotions. Many senior officers and employees of the organization have retired from their jobs or left this world while waiting for their promotions. Due to the lack of accountability, this national welfare institution is rife with widespread abuse of power, corruption and mismanagement.
The federal government recently transferred Ishrat Ali, secretary of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistan and Human Resource Development, and appointed Zulfiqar Haider, a senior Grade 22 officer, as the new secretary of the ministry. It should be noted that the Secretary of the Ministry is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the EOBI.
Taking full advantage of the absence of a permanent chairman and director-general of operations in the organization, influential EOBI officers have gone berserk. Pensioners’ animosity has reached a climax with some of the agency’s recommended regional heads. In the end, unintentional Regional Heads misused their powers to provide education to the new generation of retired employees registered with EOBI, especially in educational institutions for a long time. After retirement, female teachers are treated with such contempt and abuse in the approval of their legitimate pensions as if they are paying pensions out of their own pockets. These Regional Heads make every effort to get these retired employees dismissed by giving them a lump sum grant instead of their legitimate pension.
Thousands of retired employees and their widows are being deprived of their rights due to these illegal activities in EOBI. Some regional heads have targeted retired female teachers. Despite the employment of young female teachers in various educational institutions, they are not approving the legal pensions of these female teachers on the grounds of non-registration of these educational institutions and non-receipt of contributions and non-verification of jobs of these female teachers.
In this regard, the Regional Office Korangi has been at the forefront in providing voluntary old age grants instead of pensions to the registered retired employees and treating the elderly employees and widows with contempt. Regional Head Faisal Murtaza avoids meeting with retired employees and widows in the first place and even if one is lucky enough to meet him, the regional head treats these retired employees and widows very rudely regardless of their age. It is as if they are begging or giving alms instead of their legitimate pension.
Sources said that Faisal Murtaza had succeeded in recruiting for the key post in 2007 by violating the federal quota and Mahmood Nabi Jan, a senior officer of EOBI against him and other influential officers recruited in 2007.
It is reported that despite receiving huge salary, house rent and other attractive benefits from Regional Head Korangi Faisal Murtaza Institution, he has taken up his illegal residence in the Regional Office and some Regional Heads Institutions belonging to Punjab from Karachi spending 15 days a month in Karachi and 15 days in their hometown with the help of some high ranking officials. As a result, there is a backlog of pension applications for retired employees and widows in the regional offices.
In the absence of a permanent chairman and director-general of operations at EOBI, corrupt field operations officers intimidate and punish lower employers and employers who are ignorant of the law in the name of registration of workers in EOBI. Harassment, bribery and extortion continue in the department.
On the other hand, for the insured employees of EOBI who have cut their stomachs from their salaries and submitted their monthly contribution to EOBI in the hope of getting their pension, now getting a pension from EOBI is like gambling. ۔
At present, the EOBI Regional Offices have an unannounced policy of discouraging insurers’ pension applications and justifying non-payment or non-certification of contributions for jobs in other than one of them. By rejecting these jobs, instead of issuing a lifetime old age pension on the basis of only one job, he is being given a lump sum old age grant of a few thousand rupees. As a result, the pension rights of registered employees and female teachers who have been serving in various institutions for 20 and 30 years are being severely curtailed. When these affected employees turn to the Adjudicating Authority for an appeal, they usually do not get justice even after months of waiting.
The EOBI has recently come up with another anti-pensioner ruling, which states that if both the spouses are EOBI pensioners at the same time, and if of one them dies then the pension is transferred to the surviving spouse. Because the contribution was paid to EOBI by both the insurers. But now the EOBI Operations Department has also banned the payment of this legal inheritance pension in the light of an Office Memorandum dated April 15, 2022, of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of Pakistan. As a result, severe anxiety has spread among the affected pensioners.
In view of this situation, EOBI employees and pensioners have asked Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif and Federal Minister Sajid Hussain Turi to take the EOBI out of the maelstrom of challenges and redress the grievances of the pensioners. Has appealed for cleansing.
