‘Despite CM’s orders, KMC salary accounts still frozen’

The salary accounts of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) are still inactive despite the Sindh chief minister’s order to unfreeze the KMC's salary accounts, said a senior KMC officer requesting anonymity.

He said KMC employees, especially Hindu staffers, faced difficulties on their religious festival, Diwali, as their salary payment schedule was adversely affected. 

He said the KMC should get its Rs500 million, which was direly needed to bring the corporation out of a grave financial crisis.

The KMC has 18000 employees, who continue to face delay in receiving salaries, he added.

The Sindh government said on Saturday that it had frozen the accounts of local bodies in the province just to redistribute financial resources among all of them including those which have been newly created, but their salary accounts were still active.

On the other hand, Deputy Mayor Karachi Dr Arshad Vohra expressed his concerns on the freezing of funds of all the local councils in the Sindh.

He said that it also affected the disbursement of salary to members of Hindu community on the eve of Diwali and payment of monthly salaries and pension to officers and lower grade employees.

The deputy mayor said this action would mean stoppage of all the development works in Sindh, including Karachi.