KARACHI, May 16: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has sought possession of its some 50 vehicles that have been in use of officers working in various departments of the Sindh government for more than a year, it emerged on Wednesday.

A senior official confirmed that there were some 50 vehicles of the KMC being used by different provincial government departments, including the local government and agriculture departments. Most Sindh government officers, who were transferred over the years to the defunct city district government, did not bother to return the vehicles while being posted back
to different departments of the provincial government, he added.

“The number of such vehicles stands at around 50,” said another official. “The officers of the Sindh education, agriculture departments are major users of the KMC vehicles that range from luxury jeeps to 2,000-CC cars. The KMC administration has recently approached the secretaries of different departments to help recover these vehicles.”

He said the KMC administrator had recently sent a letter to the local government secretary seeking his assistance in recovering six vehicles from the possession of a former parks director, no longer associated with the KMC.

“Those vehicles include a Prado, double-cabin Vego and a 2,000-CC car,” he said, adding that several such requests had been sent to high-ups of the several provincial government departments but in vain. “The KMC administration only owns 725 vehicles while the number of its officers stands at 5,000. If we can’t even meet the demand within our own organisation, how can we afford disposal of our vehicles to some other institutions?”

However, when asked about any legal action from the KMC if the departments concerned failed to respond, he said that options were open but no decision had been made regarding registration of an FIR.

“Since we are in a state of transition, there is some confusion among institutions and officers as well. So the KMC is not much aggressive towards that particular exercise and prefers to settle the issue in an amicable way,” he added.