KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), and excise and taxation and local government departments to ensure that the salaries of missing persons should not be released.

While hearing dozens of petitions about the recovery of missing persons, the two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha directed the Karachi mayor, KWSB managing director and secretaries of the local government and excise and taxation to file a compliance report till Oct 31.

In the last hearing, the bench had sought a report from Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and an official the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances about the salary of one of its employees, who reportedly went missing in 2016, after it was informed that the commission had ordered to release the salaries of the missing persons.

On Thursday, an official of the commission through a statement informed the bench that directives had been issued for the release of salaries of around 30 missing persons, who were employees of different provincial and local government departments. However, now the salaries were stopped, it added.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2019