karachi: The Sindh Assembly was briefed on Friday that the provincial government has been working on several transport sector projects to ensure speedy, comfortable and best commuting facilities for the residents of Karachi and other cities in the province.
Sindh Senior Minister for Information and Transport Sharjeel Inam Memon gave the assurance to this effect while responding to queries from concerned lawmakers during the Sindh Assembly’s question hour.
He told the concerned legislators that the provincial cabinet had the other day approved a plan for purchasing more electric buses for Karachi. He told the House that the Pink Bus service reserved for women passengers only had already been operational on different routes in the city.
The Red Line section of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system being built in Karachi would be the only mass transit system in Pakistan whose buses would operate on environment-friendly biogas, the transport minister said. He added that the construction work on the Red Line BRT corridor remained completely halted during the caretaker regime in the province, due to which the project had been delayed.
He explained that shifting of the service lines of different public utilities had also been delaying the project.
Answering another question, he told the House that the use of motor vehicles without a licence and not obeying the traffic signals on the roads were the two main reasons behind worsened traffic systems in cities.
He said that cycling tracks were being built along the Red Line and Green Line corridors in Karachi.
Municipal staffers
Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani informed the legislature that pensions were regularly being paid to the retired employees of most of the municipal agencies working under the administrative control of the local government department.
He said this while responding to a call attention notice of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) MPA Abdul Waseem.
Ghani, however, conceded that there had been problems in paying dues to some retired employees of municipal agencies in Sindh. He told the House that many retired municipal staffers were worried because of this issue.
He informed the concerned legislators that pensions were regularly being paid to the retired staffers of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. He said that payments from the provident fund had also been made to these retired employees. He conceded that dues amounting to Rs 13 billion were yet to be paid to these retired staffers.
The local government minister told the House that dues had been paid to the employees who stood retired till July 2017. He explained that the dues of the employees who had retired from the municipal service afterwards were yet to be paid.
He said the KMC was obliged to pay the dues of the retired employees of the district municipal corporations that were working in the city till 2023. “Our standpoint is that dues of the later period are payable by the towns,” he said.
He informed the House that the Sindh government had still been paying Rs1.2 billion to the KMC every month for the payment of salaries and pensions to the latter’s employees. “In the past regime, former city nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal borrowed Rs500 million for one month under the same head but the Sindh government continues to extend the same financial support till the present day as this monthly assistance has now increased to Rs1.2 billion,” he said.
He informed the House that upon receiving an additional demand from the KMC, the Sindh government had approved a loan of Rs2.76 billion for it.
Ghani said the KMC had also increased its revenue earnings. He said the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had to pay Rs3.8 billion in dues to its employees whose payment had been pending since September 2020.
H added that the KDA had requested the Sindh government to pay a Rs3 billion grant to it. He told the House that the Sindh government had been paying a sum of Rs400 million to the KDA for the payment of the salaries and pensions of its employees. He said the retired employees of the KDA had been regularly getting pensions.
The local government minister said the Sindh cabinet had the other day approved a grant of Rs500 million for the Hyderabad Development Authority.
He explained that a sub-committee of the provincial cabinet had been formed to adopt a mechanism for smoothly paying salaries and dues to these employees.
Responding to another call attention notice moved by MQM-P legislator Amir Siddiqui about the unsatisfactory sanitation situation in Jamshed Town and adjacent areas, Ghani conceded that the services of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had been affected in District East. He said the sanitation contract awarded to a Chinese company for sanitation in District East had expired. He said the contract could not be renewed because the foreign company in question wanted to receive its payments in dollars instead of Pakistani rupees.
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