Two thousand flats built for homeless workers in Peshawar have not been handed over to them even after five years of their completion.

The federal government decided to build a residential colony for workers in the provincial capital in 2008 . For this, 500 kanals of land was purchased on the city’s outskirts in Regi Lalma, which falls under the limits of Development Authority  and is close to the M-1 motorway.

Initially, a plan was prepared to build 1,200 flats with Rs2.81bn. After the approval of PC-1, construction work began in 2011. However, two years later (in 2013), the government decided to expand the project and added another 856 flats. The estimated cost also increased by Rs2.27bn. Thus, an estimate of Rs5.93bn was approved for a total of 2,056 flats and related facilities in Regi Lalma, which amounts to 2.5 million per flat. Despite some delays, almost all the construction work was completed in 2020.

According to the plan, these flats were built in form of four-storey blocks, each block consisting of eight flats. Roads, water supply, community centre, mosques, schools and other facilities have also been provided. There has also been progress in electricity and gas supply projects, but these flats have not yet been allotted to the workers.

Conflict among parties to get credit

The project to build the Regi Lalma Labour Colony was prepared by the PPP government in 2008  under the supervision of the Workers Welfare Board, a federal agency under the Ministry of Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis.

This agency came into existence under the Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971.

The budget for the project was allocated from the Workers Welfare Fund itself and its completion and management is also the responsibility of the Workers Welfare Board.

Former provincial minister Kamran Bangash has confirmed that the construction of half of the flats from the Workers Welfare Fund had started in 2011 and the rest in 2013.

According to him, during the PML-N regime (June 2013 to 2018), federal funds for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were stopped. When the PTI government was formed in the federal government, the funds for the project were released after 2018 and construction work was completed.

Later, the PTI renamed Regi Lalma Colony as the 'Labour Complex' and advertised these flats as its flagship project. When Prime Minister Imran Khan officially inaugurated it in May 2021, it was declared as part of the 'Naya Pakistan Housing Project' on his official social media page. The then provincial minister for labour, Shaukat Yousafzai, claimed that the party had fulfilled its promise to the homeless labourers.

“For the first time, we have brought such a scheme in which many facilities are being provided to the workers. As many as 2,056 family flats will be distributed among registered workers to fulfill their dream of owning a house,” he said.

Built for labourers but used for other purposes

None of the officials of the Workers Welfare Board in Peshawar are ready to speak officially on the project. However, a senior official, on condition of anonymity, said that Rs5.31bn had been spent on the labour complex so far and the amount was released from the Workers Welfare Fund itself.

According to him, the cost has increased by about Rs500 million due to the project not being completed on time.

He says that some of the delay in the project was due to the delay in the release of funds, then in April 2020, the district administration set up quarantine centres in 592 flats here. This process continued for a year, due to which the construction work had to be stopped. When the work resumed, in 2023, the provincial government built a repatriation centre for illegal Afghan immigrants in 608 flats here, which caused further delays.

According to officials, the Workers Welfare Board had applied to Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in 2013 for electricity for the complex. Wapda laid the transmission line in July this year and issued demand notices in September. Now, the development work of electricity etc in the flats will be completed soon.

Abdul Saeed Khan is the president of the Industrial Workers Union and the provincial deputy general secretary of the United Workers Federation. Speaking to Lok Sujag, he says that applications were invited from the workers first (in 2022) to give the flats on ownership rights and the policy was changed last year and flats were offered on rent. More than 1,000 applications were received but the board is still delaying the matter.

Ownership rights or rent?

Abdul Saeed Khan says that this Labour Complex was started by the PPP but former prime minister Imran Khan had promised to give the workers flats on ownership rights. A notification was issued and the board’s allotment committee was also formed.

When that government ended , the board reissued orders to give the flats on rent, which is unfair to the workers. He says that the workers had filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court against the board’s policy in 2014. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the workers in 2017 and issued orders to give the flats on ownership rights, but the board challenged this decision in the Supreme Court, which is still pending.

Earlier, the PPP government had approved giving ownership rights to the workers through the Finance Bill, which was rejected by the Supreme Court. Later, the PTI got the same policy approved by the federal cabinet. However, the board has been maintaining that it is not possible to give ownership rights without amending the Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971.

According to an officer of the board, the flats in the Regi Lalma Complex will be given to the workers on rent, just as the board-owned houses or other flats have been given in other areas. According to the decided policy, the rent of each flat will be Rs1,000 and the maintenance fee will be Rs500 per month.

In the first phase, applications from 1,050 workers have been received. The remaining flats will be allotted according to the same procedure when applications are received.

2,000 flats and only 1,050  applications for allotment?

Labour leader and secretary general of the United Workers Federation, Razam Khan, has also applied for a flat in the Regi Lalma Labour Complex. He complains that the board has imposed very strict conditions for the allotment of these flats.

The Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) and social security cards have been made mandatory, which very few employees have, while according to the Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971, it is not necessary for a worker to have an EOBI or social security card.

According to him, this is why the board has received very few applications, i.e. only 1,020, for 2,056 flats.

According to policy of the Workers Welfare Board, these flats are allotted on rent to workers who meet the eligibility criteria through their industrial units or directly.  It is necessary for an industrial unit or institution that there should be at least 10 workers working there and the institution should be located in the same district as the flats.

This institution should be registered with the Directorate of Labour, Employees Social Security Institute (ESSI) or EOBI and should be contributing to the Workers Welfare Fund. The worker should be married and only that worker will be eligible who does not have their own house in the area, either wholly or partly, and they should have been working in an institution where there are at least 10 workers for five consecutive years. However, the requirement of continuous employment for workers in the advertisement calling for applications was reduced to three years instead of five years.

Razam Khan says that the workers applied in the hope that they would not only get a roof but also their long-standing dream of owning a house would be fulfilled. It is not yet clear whether the dream of the workers of Peshawar for their own house would be fulfilled, but if these flats are made available to them immediately their financial burden would definitely be reduced.