ISLAMABAD, June 23 The Employees' Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) has asked members of business community to get their employees registered in various schemes of the institution to provide them with financial support after retirement.

Speaking at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, EOBI Director-General Iqbal Haider Zaidi said the EOBI was a welfare-oriented institution and businessmen should contribute towards various schemes of the institution for better future of their employees.

He said that at present the institution had 37 regional and 70 field offices and was planning to expand its network throughout the country.

Mr Zaidi said the institution had introduced a number portability facility under which an employee's EOBI number for contribution would remain same even if he changed employers.

“More than three million employees are currently registered with the EOBI and 360,000 are getting pension benefits,” he said, adding that the institution covered all those industrial and commercial enterprises which had five or more employees. However, he said, the businesses which had less than five employees could get them voluntarily registered with the EOBI.

Mr Zaidi said the EOBI was playing a significant role in alleviating poverty because millions of families were getting financial support from it.

ICCI President Zahid Maqbool said that employees were the most valuable asset of an organisation and urged businessmen to protect this asset by getting them registered with the EOBI.

He said the EOBI should launch an effective awareness campaign about its services because most employees in the private sector were unaware of benefit of its services.

Mr Maqbool suggested that a committee comprising representatives of the institution and the chamber should be set up to resolve EOBI-related issues of businessmen.