KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed jail authorities and provincial and federal law officers to provide details about the offences against undertrial prisoners (UTPs) at Karachi’s central prison and maximum sentences in such cases within six weeks.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha also directed the petitioner to satisfy the court about the maintainability of the petitions and asked respondents to file their comments before the next hearing.

The bench was hearing a petition seeking release of those UTPs on bail who had already spent the period in jail longer than the maximum terms of the offences they had been charged with during the pendency of their trials.

The court directed the inspector general of Sindh prisons to provide a list of UTPs confined at the Karachi central prison stating their offences and how long they had been in jail including remissions, if any, to the prosecutor general Sindh within two weeks.

The bench ruled that the prosecutor general would have to go through the list and produce it in court with an additional column containing the maximum sentences against all the offences for which the UTPs had been charged with.

It also asked the prosecutor general that upon receiving the list a copy of the same be provided to the additional attorney general, who must insert the list of maximum sentences for federal offences under the said law. This exercise shall be completed within six weeks, the bench ordered.

City administrator expresses inability to pay retirement dues of KMC pensioners

KDA, KMC pensioners’ case

Another SHC bench has constituted a committee to explore ways to resolve the issue about non-payment of post-retirement benefits of retired employees of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) after the city administrator said that sufficient funds were not available to settle their dues.

The bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar also sought details regarding properties owned by KMC till Dec 16.

When a petition of former employees of KDA came up for hearing on Thursday, city Administrator Iftikhar Shallwani turned up along with a proposal for settlement of the pension dues.

It was admitted in the proposal that the KMC was liable to pay an amount of Rs4.246 billion to its retired employees, but an amount of Rs191.149 million was required by the KMC to fill the monthly shortfall in the pension fund account.

The administrator informed the bench that the KMC did not have sufficient funds to settle the liability or even to pay salaries to its employees.

He further said that besides the head office of the KMC, which is a heritage building, the KMC owned hospitals, amenity parks and several other properties.

He maintained that the KMC needed a bailout package in shape of grant by the Sindh government to settle the liability in question, adding that a grant from the provincial government was being received on a quarterly basis, but the same was not sufficient to meet this requirement.

The bench constituted a committee comprising the Sindh chief secretary, city administrator, finance and local government secretaries and advocate general to explore all possibilities of resolving the issue including the bailout package and mode for such resolution and directed it to submit its report on the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2020