KARACHI: The miseries of Karachiites during monsoon rains are likely to increase as contractors of district municipal administrations have threatened to abandon work on ongoing development projects if their dues are not paid within 15 days.

Informed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the representatives of contractors told the chairmen of district municipal committees that they had decided to move the Sindh High Court for payments of their approved bills, besides suspending work on ongoing municipal works which included maintenance and patchwork of streets and roads in different parts of Central and Korangi districts.

Chairman of the Karachi Constructor Association (KCA) S.M. Naeem Kazmi said that their body had held a meeting and decided to file a constitutional petition with the SHC for payment of contractors’ dues.

Cite unpaid bills as the reason

“The contractors have also threatened to stop work on municipal uplift schemes if they are not paid their dues within 15 days,” he added.

He said that a KCA delegation, headed by him and comprising members of the association’s executive committee met Chairman of DMC Central Rehan Hashmi and apprised him of the problems being faced by the contractors due to non-payment of their bills.

Mr Kazmi said that the delegation told the DMC Central chairman that the contractors would not be in a position to continue work on municipal projects due to lack of funds as their bills were not paid to them.

He quoted the DMC Central chairman as telling them that there was an acute shortage of funds due to deduction of funds by the provincial government.

The sources said that the DMC Central owed an amount of over Rs350 million to the contractors for the past many years. Besides, they said, payment of another amount of Rs150m for the works carried out during the time of administrators had been pending for the past five years.

KCA information secretary Saeed Mughal said that the payment of contractors’ bill for the ongoing civic works was made through monthly instalments of three to seven per cent of the total amount. “This mode of payment is practiced nowhere in the world,” he said adding that it was not acceptable to the contractors.

He said that the contractors arranged construction material and other articles for carrying out uplift schemes on credit from market on the promise that they would pay for the material after payment of their dues.

Mr Mughal added that over 150 civil and maintenance works were being carried out in ongoing uplift projects in District Central and as many in District Korangi.

He said that payment of contractors’ dues to the tune of Rs350m had not been made for the past many years. “How can contractors continue work on schemes and survive when they don’t get money on time?” he asked and added that they were not millionaires or bankers who could afford long delays in payment of their dues.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019