Municipal staff’s verification to be completed in a month: Jumani

Sindh caretaker local government minister Muhammad Mubeen Jumani on Tuesday said the process of verification of the staff of all the municipal agencies in Karachi through the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) would be completed in a month.

Talking to media persons at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) after meeting KPC office-bearers, Jumani said the verification process using the Nadra database would ensure that salaries are transferred only to the bona fide staff of the various municipal agencies in the city.

Replying to a question, he conceded that numerous municipal agencies in the province are overstaffed. He said efforts are under way to ensure biometric verification of all the municipal staff members and online transfer of salaries to their accounts.

He also said assistance is being sought from Nadra and other relevant agencies to verify the LG staffers for purging the municipal agencies of ghost employees. He told the media persons that all the financial resources available with the municipal agencies from Karachi to Kashmore are spent on paying staff salaries, so there is no fund available with the local bodies for carrying out development works.

Responding to another query, he said that nobody has complained to him yet about the session of the City Council in Karachi not being convened regularly. Jumani said he would check whether the LG minister has any power regarding the convening of the session of the City Council, adding that he would use his authority in the matter if he can.

He told the journalists that orders have been issued for adopting a fresh master plan for Karachi, saying that the consultant hired would soon start the work in this regard. Answering another question, he made the assurance that he is politically neutral, and that no political party had recommended his appointment as a member of the interim cabinet.