Bank accounts of Sindh’s municipal agencies frozen

In an unusual move and that too without assigning any specific reason, the Sindh government’s finance department ordered banks on Wednesday to freeze all the accounts being maintained by different municipal agencies in the province including that of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and the district municipal corporations in the city.

A circular to this effect was issued by the finance department bearing serial number “FD (RES-III)7 (51)/2016” and dated October, 24 2016.

It was addressed to the State Bank of Pakistan director (accounts), the Sindh Bank Ltd president, and the National Bank of Pakistan vice-president, all three based in Karachi.

The subject of the circular was “Freezing of accounts/funds in Account-1 pertaining to the KMCs/DMCs/ District Councils/TMAs successors (municipal corporations/municipal/town committees) & union administrations in Sindh.”

The circular, undersigned by section officer (Res-III) Syed Shahzad Ahmed of the provincial government’s finance department secretary, read, “I am directed to refer to the subject noted above and to state that it has been decided to freeze the following funds/accounts maintained in respective bank branches of Sindh Bank Limited and National Bank of Pakistan under Account-1 as well as all accounts in other commercial backs with immediate effect:

(1) Accounts/funds pertaining to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation/District Municipal Corporations,

(2) Accounts/Funds pertaining to TMAs successors (Municipal Corporations, Municipal/Town Committees) in Sindh,

(3) Accounts/Funds pertaining to District Councils in Sindh,

(4) Accounts/Funds pertaining to Union Administrations in Sindh.

“It is, therefore, requested to henceforth stop all the payments against the list of bank account numbers attached at (Annexure-I, II, III, IV, and V) with immediate effect under intimation to this department till further instructions”.

The copies of the circular were also sent to the Sindh accountant general, the principal secretary to the chief minister, the local government secretary and the deputy secretary (Staff) to the chief secretary.

It is unclear as to how would the municipal agencies in the province meet their day-to-day financial requirements and operational expenses.  Besides, it has also not been notified as to how long these accounts would remain frozen.