Apparently dejected over non-payment of pending dues, a retired officer of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Iqbal Qasim
committed suicide after jumping off the sixth floor of the Civic Centre building, on Monday.
The KMC spokesman said the deputy mayor, Dr Arshad Vohra, had taken notice of the suicide. He was said to have clarified that the man had nothing to do with the KMC but was an erstwhile employee and a pensioner.
The KMC official claimed that his pension had been cleared till October this year, but his pending arrears were yet to be paid for which the man had been frequently visiting the KMC’s finance department.
He was reported to have disappeared from the finance department’s office, on Monday; however, according to KMC financial adviser Khalid Mahmood Sheikh, Qasim had not visited the office on Monday nor had he met any officer of the finance department.
Sources at the administrative agency informed that pensioners had been facing a delay in payments ever since the deputy mayor and KMC’s metropolitan commissioner, Badar Jamil, were both handed over the responsibility to monitor the mechanism of financial transactions.
“Ever since the law’s passing, the financial transactions had been facing a delay,” that also during a time when the civic agency was already going through a financial crunch, an official stated.
Qasim was said to have retired from the KMC in 1999. The clearance of his pensions, till October, could be corroborated from his bank record, claimed KMC spokesperson.
New Town’s Sub Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Rahim Shah said police took the victim to the JPMC, where he was pronounced dead. The deceased was a resident of Sherpao Colony, Quaidabad.
Shah added that initially it was speculated that the man had committed suicide by jumping from a balcony on the 6th floor of the Civic Centre over reports he was not getting his monthly pension. However, it was later learnt that the man had regularly been withdrawing his pension amount from a bank since his retirement and had also taken his pension last month.
SDPO Shah said Iqbal had also not engaged into any argument with any official before the incident. However, he said it was early to conclude anything as the police were investigating the incident from various angles.