Daily Times

KARACHI: No audit on any authentic grounds has been initiated to determine the enormous anomalies in the Protector of Emigrants Workers Welfare Fund (WWF), established in March 1979, for overseas Pakistanis.

Even after 38 years, the consecutive governments in power did not bother to highlight the misappropriation in the WWF.

The Public Account Committee of the Cabinet should also look into the enormous anomalies in WWF.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development appeared after its establishment on June 7, 2013 through a merger with the erstwhile Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis under the Rules of Business 1973.

In the past, Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Khursheed Ahmad Shah, and Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Dr Farooq Sattar, remained reluctant to take serious steps to bring the facts into light. Even today, the government is not serious in taking into account the reasons behind the misuse of funds. No audit report has so far been made public up till now and ‘Billions of rupees fund under the head of WWF has no record and audited’.

Representatives of Pakistan Overseas Exporters Promotion Association (POEPA) had also made several demands in this regard but to no avail. Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC), a public sector body under the Labour and Manpower, collects more than Rs 7,500 from every person going abroad on employment.

After deducting charges of private registered recruitment agencies, the OEC receives around Rs 3,500 per person. The State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) receives around Rs 850 per person on account of insurance.

After March 23 1979 through the Protector of Emigrants and depositing a prescribed amount in the Welfare Fund, every person automatically becomes a member of the Foundation.

The POEPA till date has sent more than 150,000 people abroad annually on average for employment. Around 6 million workers in different fields have been sent abroad by the private registered recruitment agencies.

OEC has also been authorised to recruit trained, skilled, and semi skilled persons in different professions to meet the demand for manpower by foreign companies engaged in other countries.

OEC, along with the necessary documents, asked for a bank draft or pay order payable to the National Database and Registration Authority in addition to the amount received from the WWF. Due to poor policies, the manpower export to Saudi Arabia and other states experienced a setback in previous years and there was a need to rectify such anomalies in the future.

Around 98 percent of candidates going abroad belong to major cities of the country.

Both the ministries must call a joint meeting with the stakeholders once a year to discuss matters related to the sector and to listen to the grievances of POEPA.

The government should also reactivate commercial sections in Pakistani embassies to generate opportunities where highly skilled and skilled workers are required – ourlabourers have always been hard-working overseas.

More than 7.7 million overseas Pakistanis live in various countries including in the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, United States, and Canada.

Pakistan has been exporting its manpower to different countries since 1971. About 5.9 million workers of various categories have been sent abroad for employment from 1971 to June 2015.

There is dire need of overseas training centres to impart technical training to the workforce in order to equip them with skills in accordance along the lines of employers’ requirements.

These centres, along with imparting technical training to the workers, also conduct language and culture training tests on the pretext of sending them for employment.