SHC tells KDA to pay up dues of retired employees through its assignee

The Sindh High Court has directed the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to ensure the disbursement of post-retirement dues of its employees through an official assignee of the court.

The directive came during the hearing of petitions pertaining to the payment of outstanding dues of more than 1,000 retired employees of the authority. The high court, on a previous hearing, had directed the Sindh government to consider a KDA proposal for the grant of a Rs844.159 million loan for clearing the dues.

The provincial law officer filed a statement of the local government secretary, submitting that the competent authority had approved an amount of Rs500 million as grant-in-aid in favour of the KDA for the disbursement of the retirement dues.

He submitted that compliance with the orders of the court had been made in letter and spirit. He further said such a grant-in-aid could only be used for the disbursement of post-retirement dues, and not otherwise.

The court directed its official assignee to look into the grant and take appropriate measures to ensure that the grant-in-aid was used for the purpose it was meant for. It directed the KDA to ensure that the payment of the dues be made through the official assignee, and not otherwise, and that the exercise be undertaken within a reasonable time.