IIUI Welfare Fund: Bane or Boon

Welfare Fund is a certain amount of money deducted from the salaries of IIUI employees every month. In addition to that, it is the 5% deduction from the extra income of IIUI full time as well as part time faculty. The proclaimed purpose of the fund is to help the contributors in case of hardship and difficulty. Conceptually, it’s a great idea and there can’t be two opinions about the existence of such a fund. But there are a number of things in the world that sound so good conceptually but when it comes to their administration, all the goodness of the idea evaporates. More or less, same is the case with IIUI Welfare Fund.

Origin: First of all, the origin of the fund is shrouded in mystery. We don’t have the exact information on how the fund started. From what we have been able to glean from different sources, it seems that a few faculty members along with some other employees went with this proposal to the then president without proper consultation with all the stakeholders who were to become the contributors to the fund. We are sure that the majority of the faculty and employees were kept ignorant about the fund proposal and the possible uses of the fund.

Double Jeopardy: Earlier, there was only one deduction for the fund from the monthly salary but later on, the extra income of the faculty also came under scrutiny and a 5% deduction started from there as well. Worst of all, the visiting faculty that is not even nominally the beneficiary of the fund started getting deductions from their bills. Some of our readers may argue that the contract that the part time teachers, from among the regular as well as visiting faculty, are required to sign before they start teaching at IIUI includes one clause regarding the deduction from their income. This is utterly an unfair term of contract and needs thorough revision.

Who administers the fund and the issues of transparency? There is a committee that administers the fund and the committee is not fairly represented. Some of the stakeholders are represented more than the others. The faculty that is the major contributor to the fund is represented by the few “handpicked” “chosen” people who do not speak for the wishes of their constituency and play the role of a rubber stamp. Secondly, since its inception, those who administer the fund have not published a single report regarding the fund as to how much income did the fund generate in, say, one single year, how was it distributed, how much money is/isn’t there in the account at the end of that financial year?? This is the basic condition of transparency for any financial matter and we know how meticulous the bodies are that generate income in this manner. Thirdly, it seems that the accounts of welfare fund are kept secret from the auditors, and especially external auditors, and this is the reason no annual report of the fund has ever been published. Finally, comes the issue of the reflection of welfare fund deduction in the annual tax returns of the employees. We are of the view that as a result of this deduction, the employees of IIUI can get an equal rebate from the Government of Pakistan.

The Uses of the Fund: For some years, the “real decision makers” have been funding some employees to perform Umra with the welfare fund money. International Islamic University that hosts a faculty called Shari’a and Law should issue a fatwa regarding such Umras and Hajjs. Had this been done by the so-called secular people, this would have been a great sin and corruption: misusing taxpayer’s money. But since, the champions of Islam have total monopoly on how to interpret Islam for their vested interests; no one raises the questions on why someone should be sent for Umra or Hajj when he or she can’t afford it?

The Way Out: We believe the fund can do a lot good to IIUI community provided it is administered in a transparent manner. To ensure the transparency, those at the helm of affairs should develop a dedicated page on IIUI website about the fund which should have all the details of the annual reports, audit reports and administrative details regarding the fund.
And last but not the least; the Welfare Fund committee should be reconstituted in terms of representing those in equal proportion who contribute more to the fund. In other words, if the faculty contributes 70% of the money to the fund, the faculty should be 70% of that committee giving equal share to lecturers and assistant professors as well as the senior faculty. The emphasis on lecturers and APs is because they form the 90% of the faculty at IIUI and there is no one to represent them in various committees and statutory bodies.