KARACHI, June 1: The city government Karachi will try to increase the loan amount for the welfare of its employees to Rs20 million in the next fiscal.

This was announced by Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan at the loans draw ceremony at his office here on Saturday.

The Naib Nazim also announced that he would himself bear the expenses of the marriages of the daughters of the poor employees of grade 1 to 10. He said that welfare shops would also be opened for the employees of the city government.

He said President Musharraf had himself praised the performance of the city government Karachi, and emphasised the need to further improve the performance.

Addressing the employees, DCO Karachi Mir Hussain Ali assured them that similar welfare-oriented programmes would be announced in future also.

In the draw 47 employees were given house-building loans amounting to a total of Rs6.08 million. At least 2,045 applications were received, out of which 1,375 were declared eligible for the draw.

25 successful applicants were of 1-5 grades, 13 were of 6 -10 graded, seven were of 11-15 grades and two officers were of grade 16 and above.—APP