KARACHI: On the request of Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro on Monday ordered a special three-year audit of all 246 union committees (UCs) in Karachi.

The PAC chairman, who is also the president of Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was asked by Mayor Wahab, also a PPP nominee, to order the financial audit of all 246 UCs in the metropolis.

In response, Khuhro directed officials concerned to conduct the special audit and sought details regarding the utilisation of monthly Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) funds, expenditures, employee details and pension records.

According to a statement, the PAC chairman said that the Sindh government provided Rs1.2 million per month in OZT funds to every UC, amounting to Rs295.2m per month for Karachi’s 246 UCs.

“However, no one knows where the UCs are spending the monthly funds received from the provincial government,” he said.

Khuhro said that the special financial audit of the UCs would reveal where and on what heads the UC funds were being spent. He said that since the provincial government provided funds to UCs for public welfare at the grassroots level, public money should be spent on the public.

“If financial irregularities were proven in the funds meant for public welfare, action will be taken,” he warned.

Additionally, the PAC chief also asked for the details of “road cutting charges” from all town municipal corporations (TMCs) in Karachi.

He also noted that TMCs in Karachi had received billions of rupees in the head of “road cutting” charges, and they must account for where that money was spent.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2026