KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday granted a final opportunity to the director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to settle all post-retirement benefits of its retired employees by the end of this year.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar warned that in case of non-compliance, the salaries of top officials would be stopped and the properties/assets of the KDA be attached and sold in order to fulfil the claims of the retired employees.

The bench was hearing a set of petitions moved by former employees of KDA seeking their post-retirement dues.

The bench rejected the replies submitted by the KDA chief and finance director in response to show-cause notices issued on the last hearing for not complying with the court’s earlier orders.

Commissioner office says a committee has been formed to determine new price of fresh milk

On Tuesday, KDA DG Asif Ikram appeared in court and submitted that an amount of Rs130 million had been released by the KDA by selling some of its properties.

He undertook that the entire amount would be disbursed to the widows of retired employees before the next hearing, seeking more time for payment of retirement benefits of other employees.

The bench observed that in view of the hardship being faced by the petitioners, the request of the DG for further time appeared to be unjustified, but a last and final opportunity was being granted to the KDA to settle post-retirement benefits of its former employees by paying 10 per cent without fail by Sept 30 and remaining 90pc amount by Dec 31.

The hearing was adjourned till Oct 7 with a direction to the DG and director-finance to be in attendance on the next haring.

Milk pricing

The Karachi commissioner on Tuesday informed another SHC bench that meetings had been held with all stakeholders and a committee formed to determine the price of fresh milk.

In a compliance report placed before a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, the commissioner further submitted that the divisional and district administration were also taking action against illegal profiteering of milk in the city and imposed a fine of around Rs7.3m in 1,250 cases from January to August 20.

The report was filed in a petition moved by a milk seller that they were purchasing milk at Rs120 per litre and unable to sell it for Rs94 per litre as notified by the commissioner office.

On the previous hearing, the bench had directed the local administration to come up with a progress report regarding the wholesale price of milk to retailers and whether all the stakeholders had been taken on board to resolve the issue and also sought details about the action taken if the milk was being sold beyond the notified price.

On Tuesday, the report was submitted stating that the milk sellers and dairy farmers, including the petitioner, were asked twice to submit sale/purchase receipts of fresh milk, but they did not produce the same so far and requested the bench to issue them direction in this regard.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2020