SHC seeks KDA bank account details for payment of dues to retired employees

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the director finance and accounts of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to produce the complete bank statement of bank accounts opened by the KDA for payments of outstanding dues of its 988 retired employees.

The direction came on petitions of retired employees of KDA against non-payment of their pensionary dues. The high court on a previous hearing had directed the KDA director general to pay outstanding post-retirement benefits to all the retired employees by December 31 and that 10 per cent of the claims should be settled by September 30.

The SHC warned that in case of non-compliance, the salaries of top KDA employees shall be stopped or the KDA’s property and assets shall be attached and sold to settle the outstanding dues of the retired employees.

KDA Director Finance Atta Abbas filed a compliance report along with the summary of the amount payable by the KDA to its retired employees as well as the 10 per cent amount paid to them in pursuance of the court orders. According to the report, a public notice was published in newspapers wherein a total amount of Rs234,749,894 was payable by the KDA to its retired employees and an amount of Rs23,741,450, being the 10 per cent of the amount of the pension and post-retirement benefits, had been paid by the KDA to its 988 retired employees.

The petitioners’ counsel, however, expressed reservations with regard to the content of the report and submitted that orders of the court had not been followed by the KDA in letter and spirit.

A division bench of the high court, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, directed the KDA finance director to produce the complete bank statement of the bank account opened by the KDA for the payments of outstanding dues to its 988 retired employees and submit a report by October 29.

KDA Director General Asif Ikram had earlier submitted that Rs130 million had been released by the KDA on the sale proceed of some of its properties and undertaken that the full amount, which was put in separate bank accounts of the KDA in pursuance of the court order, would be disbursed to the widows of retired employees before the next hearing.

Ikram undertook that after the payment of post-retirement benefits to all widows, any remaining amount shall be disbursed on a pro rata basis for the payment of benefits to retired employees, according to their date of retirement and priority shall be given to those who had retired earlier.