NA panel orders financial audit of Workers Welfare Fund

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development has ordered a comprehensive financial audit of the Workers Welfare Fund (WWF), while seeking details of its assets, investments, expenditures, audit reports and properties settled with provinces.

According to a news report, the committee, chaired by Syed Rafiullah, reviewed the fund’s constitutional status, financial management, investment portfolio and welfare schemes for industrial workers.

Members expressed displeasure over the absence of the federal minister and the ministry secretary, saying parliamentary oversight could not be effective if principal executive authorities did not attend committee proceedings.

Officials briefed the committee on the unresolved administrative and constitutional status of the WWF after the 18th Constitutional Amendment. The committee was told that all provinces except Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had enacted relevant legislation, but the broader issue of devolution remained pending before an appropriate constitutional mechanism.

Members questioned why legal clarity had not been achieved despite years of deliberation. Rafiullah said the delay was affecting workers and directed the ministry to provide all documents related to devolution, discussions before the Council of Common Interests, and the proposed future course of action.

The committee was informed that around Rs350 billion collected under the WWF head currently remains with the Finance Division. Members raised concern over the opportunity cost of idle public funds and recommended that WWF money be placed in interest-bearing accounts, with returns used only for industrial workers’ welfare.

The panel also sought details of WWF assets, immovable properties settled with provinces, hybrid administrative arrangements after devolution, expenditure records, audit reports, audit observations, income from investments, banking arrangements, and investment policy.

The committee also reviewed the Zone-V Labour Housing Project and questioned how housing allotments were announced without an approved policy framework. Members said public assets could not be distributed outside legal procedures and directed that responsibility be fixed where irregularities had occurred.

It sought a fact-finding report and a complete documentary record of the housing project.

The committee also discussed land acquired for a proposed medical university in Islamabad. Officials said the matter had previously been reviewed by investigative authorities and was now under consideration by a newly constituted committee.