CM Murad halts all payments except pensions, salaries

Staff Reporter
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday decided to control all the financial resources of the province amid coronavirus spreading fears.
In a statement issued by the CM Sindh spokesperson said that CM Murad Ali Shah has decided to release pensions of the retired employees from March 25. In this context the finance ministry has been advised to start disbursing the pensions from 25th of this month. The payments regarding gratuity, encashment, LPR and others have been stopped by the CM Sindh, however, payments for salaries and pensions have been green-signaled. Soon after getting the directions of CM Murad, the finance ministry has written a letter to the Accountant General.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Sunday had announced a lockdown across the province starting midnight for the next 15 days to stem the spread of coronavirus. It is pertinent to mention that a month ago Mayor Waseem Akhtar launched into a tirade of criticism against the Sindh chief minister as he described it a pipe dream of the provincial government to expect that it could run away from its responsibility to pay municipal staff salaries, pensions and utility bills after “seizing the resources of the local bodies in Sindh”. Addressing a press conference in response to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s statement issued on January 30, the city mayor said the provincial government had “seized a total net revenue worth Rs21 billion”, including all local taxes of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
The Sindh government, he said, had released only Rs7 billion in lieu of the Octroi and Zila Tax (OZT) share.“The chief minister should return the resources and powers of the local bodies if he wanted to get rid of the payment of expenditures incurred on different heads in the local bodies”, the mayor said.