SSWMB told to clear Central, Korangi districts of garbage

A Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission directed the managing director of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) on Wednesday to initiate the tender process for the lifting of garbage and waste from the jurisdictions of Karachi’s Central and Korangi districts.

Headed by Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim, the commission investigating the non-provision of potable water, proper sanitation facilities and healthy environment to Sindh’s people took exception to the performance of the Chinese company tasked with lifting garbage from four districts of the city.

Justice Amir said that if the Chinese company has failed to fulfil the requirements of its contract that it has signed, then its contract should be cancelled.

The judicial body directed the Chinese company to arrange the required number and types of employees and machineries for the purpose of lifting garbage across the metropolis.

The commission directed the managing director of the SSWMB to hold a meeting with the contractors to resolve the issue of garbage lifting as well as that of the availability of machineries and required employees, and then submit a report within a fortnight.

Justice Amir also visited the Gujjar drain and took notice of the non-issuance of a notification with regard to the transfer of work on the nala to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

The judicial body directed the local government secretary to issue a notification stating that the work on the Gujjar drain has been transferred to the KMC.

General elections

An election tribunal allowed the petitions of two Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders challenging the rejection of their nomination forms for contesting the July 25 general elections from the National Assembly constituency of NA-224 by the returning officers and allowed them to run for the polls.

PPP leaders Zulfiqar Bachani and Abdul Sattar Bachani had challenged the returning officers’ decisions to reject their nomination papers for contesting the election from the Tando Allahyar constituency on the grounds that they had concealed the details of their properties and loan defaults in their forms.