KARACHI - An elderly pensioner jumped to death from Karachi’s Civic Centre building on Monday in mysterious circumstances.
The deceased, identified as Muhammad Iqbal, son of Qasim Ali and a resident of Mansehra Colony in Quaidabad, jumped from sixth floor of the building to end his life. He was rushed to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, but could not survive. He had retired from the KMC’s Health Department in 1999.
Family of the deceased said that corrupt officials in KMC had been denying the deceased increase in pension for the last three years, which makes up around 75000 rupees, which drove him to commit suicide.
It further said that Iqbal had sought to install a K-Electric meter at his house after getting dues from the department.
The family said that the KMC officials were also even not ready to appoint his son under quota, and were using delaying tactics. Police found only 32 rupees in his pocket. Investigations into the incident have been launched.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has ordered the authorities to submit him a report on the incident.
However, a spokesperson of KMC has claimed there were no outstanding pension amount of the former employee, and that he had been paid his dues regularly.
There were no closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) at the time of the incident that could shed more light on it.
Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra also took notice of the suicide, and said that Iqbal had not killed himself due to non-payment of increase in pension as his payments had been cleared.
According to KMC officials, cheques worth Rs740 million were ready for 1,330 workers on the orders of the Sindh High Court.
“However, the workers have not been paid due to limited funds available with the KMC,” they added.