Malir DC fined for ‘careless attitude’

SHC hearing case pertaining to non-payment of salaries of Malir DMC employees

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) imposed on Thursday a Rs5,000 fine on the deputy commissioner of the Malir District Municipal Corporation (DMC) over his careless attitude toward directives given by the court for payment of salaries and pension to the corporation’s employees.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, also personally summoned the local government secretary over non-verification of 13,000 'ghost' employees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

These directives came during a hearing of a petitions filed by the KMC Sajjan Union and Justice Helpline president Advocate Nadeem Sheikh against the KMC authorities for not paying salaries and pension to its employees.

At the outset of the hearing, the judges observed that the lawyers representing five DMCs were present. But neither was the Malir deputy commissioner present nor was his lawyer in attendance.

Taking serious exception to such attitude, the bench imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on the DC with direction to attend the court on the next date of hearing.

In the meantime, Advocate Shaikh pointed out that there were 13,000 ghost employees in the metropolitan corporation, but the authorities had failed to get their credentials verified.



He alleged that the LG secretary failed to take any action and inform the court in this regard.

Therefore, the bench issued a notice to the secretary with direction to personally appear in the court on the next date to explain what steps were taken for verification of the ghost employees and action taken against them, if any. He was directed to furnish a report in this regard by February 9.

Case history

According to the union's lawyer, Sheikh, thousands of employees, including the staff of the fire brigade department as well as pensioners, have not been paid salaries for the last two to three months. This includes the hundreds of sanitary workers who are responsible for keeping the city clean.

During the course of the hearings, the court had been issuing directions to the provincial government's finance secretary to resolve the problem by providing Rs500 million in aid to KMC by the 10th of every month but the issue has yet to be resolved.