SC concerned over Sindh’s waste disposal agreement

Says local govt has not even marked any land fill side for disposal of the solid waste

The top court has expressed serious reservations over an agreement between the Sindh government and a Chinese company for the disposal of solid waste in Karachi.

“Solid Waste Management Board Karachi has to pay almost $29 per tonne to collect solid waste from front point and to dispose of it at a transit point.

Each truck normally can carry 12-15 tonnes of solid waste, which means more than $435 per truck will be paid to the Chinese company by the local government in foreign exchange for the aforesaid job. This amount if converted into Pakistan rupees will come to more than Rs46,110 approximately,” the Supreme Court judges said.



Hearing a constitutional petition against the Sindh government and others for their failure to provide potable water to people, the court wondered whether the project was feasible.

“On one hand the Sindh government is paying public money towards the salaries of the sanitary workers and on the other hand through the agreement with the Chinese agency it is required to pay in foreign exchange for the job which ex-facie would not improve the disposal of solid waste in Karachi”, it was observed in the 64-page verdict.



Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who retired as SC judge on March 31 has authored the judgment, wherein he observed that there is nothing on record to show that the board or the local government has even marked any land fill side for disposal of the solid waste which needs to be transported from the transit point for disposal to land fill site.

Likewise, the bench has expressed dissatisfaction over the skill and expertise of the in charge of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board as he has no administrative experience of the job description.

The court observed that if this board is allowed to exist, it would be a permanent liability on the Sindh government.

“We under these circumstances are compelled to observe that this court has serious reservations with regard to the continuation of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board programmes, which have failed to deliver in any part of Sindh including Karachi, and as the government continues to also pay to Local Government Departments for the same work,” the decision added.

The court observed that such amounts need to be utilised by strengthening the departments which are meant for the aforesaid job. “Running a parallel organisation to perform the same function leads to bad governance and lack of responsibility and accountability, which is sadly the order of the day, as clearly demonstrated from the material collected by the commission and by viewing the records. Experiments should end now,” the bench stressed.

It said that the non- functional board which has never performed should be dissolved by transferring its functions to the local bodies as provided under the rules of business. In doing this, the agonies of the residents of the cities will be minimised.

The court also asked the commission comprising of Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro appointed pursuant to SC’s direction to continue to work.



Last month, the same commission in its 130-page comprehensive report had highlighted the government’s failures to provide safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to people across the province of Sindh.

Now the SC has asked the commission to ensure compliance of the SC’s directions and its recommendations contained in its earlier report.