Opposition leader decries sorry state of Karachi’s municipal affairs

Says 200 dismissed KDA staffers not rehired by

KMC and remain unpaid for five months

The leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly during Monday’s proceedings again expressed serious concerns of his party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, over Karachi and its institutions not being given their due fiscal share by the government.

Speaking on a point of order, Khawaja Izharul Hassan reiterated his party’s concerns over the pressing issues of Karachi and those of its civic agencies.

He took up the issue of the Karachi Development Authority’s 200 dismissed employees, who were supposed to be reabsorbed into the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

Instead these former KDA staffers have not been paid their salaries for the past five months and are yet to be taken back by the KMC.

The opposition leader said the situation regarding civic affairs of the city had deteriorated to the extent that the KMC did not have sufficient funds to pay salaries and pensions to its employees regularly.

He said the situation had become so alarming that the employees of civic agencies were being compelled to kill themselves or start dying after remaining in a constant state of depression.

He noted that one former employee of the KMC had recently killed himself by jumping off the Civic Centre building while one aggrieved ex-staffer of the KDA waiting for his due salary of last several months had died of brain haemorrhage.

He said the widow of the deceased former staffer was running from pillar to post but was yet to receive the pension and other entitled dues of her late husband.

He said that Sindh chief minister should take notice of the sorry state of affairs of the city’s civic agencies as in case another aggrieved employee died in the future under similar circumstances, his party would not sit idle and join the protesting employees on the streets to agitate.

He said the KMC deputy mayor had realised the severity if the situation and moved a summary for a grant of Rs742 million to pay off pensions to the ex-staffers of the municipal authority. The opposition leader said that government was collecting Rs80 billion in taxes from the residents of Karachi and in return the latter were receiving nothing.

He said the provincial government was compelling the KMC to increase its revenue collection from the city to improve its financial position but neither the corporation would levy any new tax nor the government would be allowed to increase the tax burden on the citizens of Karachi. He said the provincial government had revived the KDA through a bill but the government was not serious about running the civic agency in a smooth manner.

He said it was high time that the issue of the 200 dismissed employees of KDA should be resolved as they could no longer survive without their salaries.

Responding to the point of order, local government minister said the situation of the city’s civic agencies was in disarray because of overstaffing in the past that was meant to serve political interests.

He said during previous regimes, the KMC staffers were promoted on undue basis in total disregard of the rules.

He said that KMC was the first municipal agency in the province which had received a special grant from the provincial government in view its special needs and status. He said that provincial government in addition to the monthly share in lieu of Octroi Zilla Tax, had given a special grant of Rs500 million to the KMC but despite that, the municipal authority was unable to solve the issue of salaries and pensions.

He said the provincial government had recently given a grant of Rs170 million to KMC-run hospitals for the procurement of medicines and another grant of Rs500 million for removing encroachments on storm-water drains.

He said the Sindh government was bearing the cost of development projects in the city as otherwise it was primarily the task of the KMC.

He said the same political party which was raising hue and cry over the civic and municipal affairs of Karachi was involved in encroaching public parks for setting up its offices.

The minister said irrespective of political differences, the provincial government would fully support the KMC so that it could serve the municipal and development needs of Karachi and for this purpose he had been maintaining close coordination with the deputy mayor of the city.

Earlier speaking on another point of order, the opposition leader said the provincial government’s departments concerned were delaying work related to the drafting and notifying of rules on the legislation of public interests after their passage by the provincial assembly.

He said because of the undue delay in the framing of rules by the provincial government departments concerned, the bills being passed by the provincial assembly on a frequent basis had no public utility at all.

He said that some of the important bills passed by the provincial assembly including those related to compulsory education and neighbourhood watch system had yet to be made effective and implemented in the province.

He said that departments concerned should be given a timeframe by the assembly for drafting and notifying rules on the laws passed by the provincial legislature.

The opposition leader also expressed his resentment over the delay in the introduction of the proposed government’s bill to start fresh registration of religious seminaries in the province.

Hassan said on one hand the government could not fully act on the National Action Plan against terrorism while on the other, the presentation of such important bill in the assembly related to peace and security was being unduly delayed.

Provincial Minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the provincial government was trying to create consensus on the issue of conducting a fresh drive for the registration of religious seminaries among religious scholars and the administration of madrasas in the province before the introduction of the bill. 

 

Three resolutions

The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed three resolutions: One to pay tribute to the services of senior leader of Pakistan People’s Party Jahangir Badar, who passed away on Sunday night, for democracy and politics in the country.

Another resolution moved by culture minister Sardar Ali Shah and other lawmakers paid homage to famous Sufi Poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai on the occasion of 273rd urs of the Sufi saint.

The resolution moved by Nand Kumar, a lawmaker of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, paid tribute to Baba Guru Nanak, the spiritual leader of the Sikh community, on his 548th birth anniversary.

 

PMDC

Provincial health minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro informed the House during question hour that the government had decided to settle the issue of the proposed provincial level medical and dental council in the province through the relevant forum of the Council of Common Interests after the federal government’s objection to over the move.

He said the bill to set up a provincial medical and dental council would again be moved in the provincial assembly after the issue was resolved at the CCI meeting in light of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.