The Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday directed the Sindh government to release outstanding salaries of Karachi Development Authority’s (KDA) 98 employees forthwith.
A two-member bench of the apex court comprising of Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Maqbool Baqar heard the petition of former KDA employees who were transferred to Malir Development Authority (MDA) but were not paid their outstanding dues.
In Saturday’s hearing, the court expressed extreme displeasure when it learned that employees were not paid their pending salaries despite its directives.
“Should we freeze Sindh government’s bank account?” the judges asked.
The court observed that Sindh government officials should be ashamed because the employees were deprived of their salaries for months.
The Sindh advocate general said that the provincial government had approved the summary in this regard and the dues will be released within two days.
The court directed accountant general and chief secretary to ensure payment of 98 employees immediately or else strict action would be taken against them. Adjourning the matter, the court sought compliance report by Monday.
Earlier, the petitioners informed the judges that KDA had transferred two land schemes to MDA along with 98 KDA employees, including officers. They said that they were asked by MDA to rejoin KDA, their parent department, but KDA was not willing to repatriate them.
They said that they were living below the subsistence level because they had not been given their salaries for the past 17 months. They also complained that their children were expelled from educational institutes because of non-payment of fee.
The petitioners said several officers and others employees of KDA and MDA were still posted in different departments on deputation.
