KARACHI: Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar on Friday informed the Supreme Court that Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) will pay outstanding dues to the K-Electric if the Sindh government release funds to the civic authority, ARY News reported.
The Supreme Court was hearing a case regarding Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s outstanding dues on K-Electric, at Karachi Registry.
During the hearing, the court asked whether government had any issues with the KMC.
Waseem Akhtar responded that KMC would pay the KE bills if the Sindh government released due funds. Secretary local government intervened and asked why the KMC didn’t increase its revenue generation.
Read: Waseem Akhtar demands ‘past-like’ authority for KMC
Akhtar said the issue of revenue generation needs to be understood from the root-cause. He said Karachi couldn’t progress until funds were released.
He questioned how other departments were ‘gobbling up’ funds that were actually meant for Karachi.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah questioned if there was any think-tank that could help in identifying problems and suggest ways to run the city.
Justice Maqbool Baqar sought details from mayor Karachi regarding curtailment in his authority. “The court will subsequently decide on domain of the authority,” the judge remarked.
The KMC lawyer requested the court to stop K-Electric from disconnecting power supply to the KMC.
Justice Shah said the Sindh government must also explain the spending of KMC. Advocate general Sindh the provincial government couldn’t grant more funds to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. “There are several ghost employees working in the KMC,” alleged the advocate general.
Mayor Karachi responded in negative and said no employee was recruited in the KMC since 2009.
 will pay outstanding dues to the K-Electric provided the Sindh government released funds to the KMC, ARY News reported.){kind=link}