Pakistani expats to be included in EOBI pension scheme, NA body told
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani workers abroad will start getting annuity in future as the present government is moving forward to materialize a plan which will ensure their inclusion in Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pension scheme.
“It is first time in the history of Pakistan that a government will be launching a pension scheme for Pakistani expats under the EOBI pension fund,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari told the Standing Committee of National Assembly on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.
The informal labour of country would also be included in the said plan, the SAPM apprised the committee, which met here with Sheikh Fayaz ud Din in the chair.
“It will be a major breakthrough as we are moving towards the national pension fund which will cover domestic labourers, brick kiln workers, freelance journalists and others,” he maintained while highlighting the government’s social security initiatives for the overseas Pakistanis and the country's labourers.
Zulfikar Bukhari said the expatriates’ inclusion in the Sehat Sahulat Programme was also on the cards as a summary had been moved to the federal cabinet for providing them the Sehat Insaf Cards under the Ehsaas project.
Member of National Assembly (MNA) Syed Javed Husnain underlined the need for involvement of local politicians in shortlisting deserving Pakistani expats for the Sehat Sahulat Programme and the EOBI pension scheme.
Highlighting the plight of Pakistani labourers residing in the labour camps of the Middle East countries, MNA Zahra Wadood Fatemi urged the government to take initiatives for their facilitation abroad.
Zulfikar Bukhari said he was aware of the issue and had taken up the matter with authorities concerned in the Middle East for ensuring provision of better accommodation to the Pakistani workers.
“I am the first minister of overseas Pakistanis who has visited the labour camps of Pakistani workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to hear their grievances.” - APP