Supreme Court of Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP
Workers have been facing difficulties in claiming marriage, death, and scholarships grants because of the pending dispute.
A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Mushir Alam, while hearing suo motu case regarding disbursement of the WWF on the applications moved by union workers, warned “if the matter is not resolved by the next date of hearing, then they [the bench] may take punitive action against the officials [concerned]”.
In case of their (officials) failure to appear before the bench on the next date of hearing, the ministers concerned will be summoned, they added.
Ministry of Finance Joint Secretary Jibran Malik informed the bench that the funds were with the Trust. However, WWFT Director Masood Raza denied it, saying, “They have not received money in their account.”
The provinces complained that after 2015-16, the federation has stopped releasing funds for death, marriage and the scholarship claims of the workers.
During the course of hearing, Justice Saeed lamented that workers were not on the radar of any political party. He also questioned whether the Punjab government was working just for factory owners.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) Razzaq A Mirza informed the court that Punjab had initiated necessary work to legislate on the issue. “Unless the dispute for the collection of workers’ fund is not resolved, the Punjab government cannot collect the fund.”
“They immediately need Rs2 billion to pay pending claims of workers.”
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa AAG Muhammad Qasim informed the bench that they would not be able to collect funds because the majority of workforce hailing from the province worked in Sindh and Punjab, and returned to their native areas after retirement.
He said teachers that were funded through the WWFT had not been paid salaries for the last three months because the provincial government have yet to receive money from the WWF.
Justice Saeed observed that factories owners in Sindh had decided that until the dispute between the federation and the provinces regarding collection of social welfare funds was sorted out they would deposit the funds in the Sindh High Court.
The Balochistan AAG informed the bench that the provincial government had cleared all the claims filed by the workers.
Abdur Rehman and Abdur Rauf -- representatives of the workers unions on whose petitions the Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice -- informed the bench that a number of applications by the workers for provision of funds were with the WWF Trust pending decisions, and they had not been paid any money.
They said the funds released by the Ministry of Finance were for the salaries of the WWF Trust officials and for the settlement of the claims.
Abdur Rehman said according to the minutes of the Finance Ministry 2013, the total collection of WWTF was Rs23.741 billion, and the funds released by the Finance Division were Rs11 billion; in 2014-15, the collection was Rs25.873 billion, and the division released Rs10 billion.
Similarly, in 2015-16, the collection was Rs22.24 billion and the funds released by the division were Rs15.64 billion. In 2016-17, around Rs16.58 billion was collected, while Rs6.2 billion was released, and in 2017-18, the total collection of the WWF was Rs16.41 billion out of which Rs10.83 was released.
Abdur Rehman said due to non-release of funds after September 2008, universities were not giving scholarships and workers’ children, who had completed education, could not get degree as the universities demand from them to clear the dues first.
Justice Saeed remarked that due to non-release of the funds, the children’s career had been destroyed. The hearing of the case was adjourned till November 29.
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