ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) will continue to be under the control of the federal government because most of the stakeholders have opposed its transfer to provinces as required under the Eighteenth Amendment.

The stakeholders – workers belonging to smaller provinces, trade unions, chambers of commerce and industry and the International Labour Organisation – are all opposed to the EOBI’s devolution to the provinces, institution’s chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal said.

After completion of the devolution process the EOBI had been left with the centre on the plea that its fate would be decided later. It has now been merged with the Human Resource Development Division of the federal government.

Sources said that EOBI`s devolution would not serve workers` interests and would lead to unequal distribution of its assets worth trillion of rupees, particularly in smaller provinces where most industries are running in loss and where the number of units is much less than in Punjab and Sindh. A large number of people from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are working out of these provinces in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, etc., and in case of devolution their share of EOBI contribution will go to the provinces where they are employed instead of the areas of their origin.

The total EOBI contribution of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province is less than the contribution of Faisalabad. The workers` share in the EOBI`s funds will be likewise.

The sources said that`s why Punjab and Sindh were supporting devolution and smaller provinces were opposing it. The smaller provinces demand an equal share in the EOBI`s assets.

The EOBI`s chairman said it was because of these issues that the institution would not be devolved, adding it would serve workers better by remaining with the centre.

Mr Gondal said several initiatives were being taken to provide facilities to the workers registered with the social safety net and their children, including dowry, health care and education.