'Selling off KMC property only way to clear Rs4 billion dues to retired employees'

KARACHI: Sindh High Court hearing case over Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) payables to the tune of Rs4 billion to its retired employees noted on Wednesday that selling assets to clear dues could be the only way forward, ARY News reported.

The High Court directed Karachi Administrator to furnish details on 25 properties sold for the purpose to start with and ordered the city authorities to sell off its assets to pay off long-overdue heaps of debts on account of salaries and pensions.

With grants from Sindh government, these payments are not possible, the court said, and insisted selling off assets was the only way forward.

To which the KMC respondents said the city municipal corporation has some properties along the high-end areas of Karachi and brought to court notice its 250 huts along Hawke’s Bay beach.

The court ordered the administrator to furnish its report and thus adjourned the hearing till Dec 22 (next week).

READ: Iftikhar Shallwani removed as commissioner, administrator Karachi

It is pertinent to note that last week, the Sindh government removed Iftikhar Shallwani as the administrator and commissioner of Karachi in a major reshuffle at the top municipal posts in the city.

According to a notification issued by the provincial authorities, Laeeq Ahmed was appointed as the new administrator of Karachi, replacing Iftikhar Shallwani.

Shallwani was replaced by Navid Ahmed Shaikh as commissioner Karachi, a notification issued today read.