PESHAWAR: Employees of the Workers Welfare Board (WWB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, has opposed devolution of Workers Welfare Board to provinces from June 2020 and feared the decision would cause shortage of funds for workers welfare projects.

They were speaking during a joint meeting of All Pakistan Workers Welfare Board Employees Union (CBA) and employees of the WWB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in Peshawar here the other day with Shah Zulqarnain in the chair. Central president of the union, Aurangzeb Khan, and other office-bearers also shared views on the occasion.

“The Workers Welfare Fund was proposed for devolution to provinces in the 18th Amendment, but its implementation was still pending due to an executive order of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani because Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were unable to afford the expenditures,” Mr Zulqarnain told Dawn.

He said that the federal government had hinted to implement the WWB devolution in next CCI meeting in June 2020. He said that the board had at least 5,000 employees and the provincial government did not have funds to afford their salaries, death grants and students’ scholarships and run residential colonies. He claimed that WWB was a federal subject and the government should avoid its devolution.

He recalled that soon after approval of the 18th Amendment the federal government had stopped releasing the WWB budget and as a result the employees had faced many problems. However, former PM Yousaf Raza Gillani through an executive order had stopped implementation of the devolution.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020