The provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was told on Tuesday that the provincial government was verifying whether rules and regulations were followed in the recruitment of 1,275 terminated employees of Workers Welfare Board (WWB).
Provincial Minister for Mineral Development and Labour Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli responded to supplementary questions from PPP’s Saleem Khan, ANP’s Syed Jaffar Shah, PPP’s Fakhar-e-Azam, JUI-F’s Shah Hussain and QWP’s Bakht Baidar regarding recruitment and termination of employees from the board.
The provincial minister said that WWB is an autonomous institution operating under the auspices of Workers Welfare Fund (WWF) which also receiving funds from it. The institution collects contribution from secured employees and then the funds are transferred to the provinces.
She said that all employees of the board were regularized in 2011, which was followed by rampant contractual employees and even the caretaker government also continued recruitment. She said that though after the general elections of 2013 recruitment in the organization was banned, but it still continued and a notice in this regard was not taken before the end of 2013.
The provincial minister said that the release of funds from the institute was suspended and even funds for the year 2015-16 could not be released. She said that due to non-release of funds, the salaries of the employees had been stopped for the last three months.
The provincial minister assured the house that the efforts of the government had born some fruit as some of the funds had been released, but that it was not a proper solution to the problem.
She said that the provincial government was verifying the recruitment of these employees to resolve the issue and pass on the benefit of this institute to the people of this province.
Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, the mover of the question pleaded the chair to refer the matter to the House Committee. The minister, however, opposed the suggestion.
Speaker Asad Qaiser while disposing of the matter directed the preparation of a detailed report to give comprehensive briefing to the house in this regard.
The minister said that she was ready for briefing the house and also considering the passage of a resolution that, instead of the devolution of the institution to provinces, the centre should continue to look after the matter.
