Members of the Karachi City Council staged a walkout to protest inordinate delay in the release of their honourarium arrears on Saturday. They strongly criticised government officials for producing unnecessary hurdles in the release of their honourarium arrears already sanctioned by the CDGK. They specially targeted EDO finance, CDGK, for ignoring the issue and not appearing before the council to explain the matter.

EDO law, CDGK, Manzoor Ahmed, who was also in the house to clarify the legal status of the matter, mentioned that there was no legal hitch in the immediate release of the honourarium outstanding to council members.

After having the legal status of the matter clarified, presiding officer Ghulam Abbas Baloch constituted a committee comprising council members to take up the issue with Karachi DCO Fazlur Rehman and hold meeting with him on January 3, 2005 in this regard.

Some other members drew attention of the council towards some official notices served to them. In this connection, Najmi Alam pointed out that he was issued a notice by provincial local government commission alleging him for interfering in the official duties of KBCA. He dismissed the charges and declared the notice as baseless and wrong.

Another member, Sharif Awan, complained that on the charge of encroaching government land, City Nazim Naimatullah issued a notice to him and without giving any chance of explanation he ordered action against him.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005