KMC told to submit employees’ pension details to high court

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to submit the details of pension payment to the KMC’s retired employees.

The direction came on KMC employees’ petition against the non-payment of their pensionary and other outstanding dues. Their counsel said they had retired from different KMC departments but are not being paid their pensionary and other outstanding dues.

He said the petitioners are moving from pillar to post for getting their outstanding dues but the authorities concerned are not clearing them. He requested the court to direct the KMC to pay the petitioners their pensionary and other dues.

He also said the petitioners are being granted pension but are ineligible for other retirement benefits. The court directed the KMC to submit the details of the petitioners’ relevant accounts and the pensionary benefits being given to them in the next hearing.

PTI’s plea denied

An election tribunal of the SHC dismissed a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate’s petition against the polling results of the provincial assembly constituency PS-94 (Karachi) on technical grounds.

The PTI’s Abdul Qadeer has claimed that the results in Form 47 were manipulated in favour of Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Najam Mirza, and requested that the results be declared void and the petitioner be declared returned candidate.

The respondent’s counsel said the petitioner did not comply with the Elections Act’s various sections prior to filing the petition and approaching the tribunal that were mandatory, and requested the court to dismiss the same.

The petitioner’s counsel said courier receipts on record show that the petition’s copies were dispatched to the respondents before the expiry of the 45-day period, thus making substantial compliance with Section 143(3) of the election law. In any case, he added, the affidavit of service subsequently filed on October 30 has cured the defect.

The ET headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry said the requirement of an affidavit of service in Section 144(2)(c) appears to be mandatory but no argument was advanced to construe it differently.

The tribunal said that it is not convinced with the submission of the petitioner’s counsel that the production of courier receipts was sufficient compliance with Section 144(2)(c). The ET said the affidavit of service filed on October 30 does not cure the defect of non-compliance with Section 144(2)(c), which is a mandatory provision, then dismissed the petition under Section 145(1).