Daily Times

KARACHI: Despite clear orders by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to government employees for being punctual, over 60 percent employees are still coming late with many remaining absent from their offices till noon, Daily Times has learnt.

Irony of the matter is that the government officials, being smart as they are, were on time to their duties on Saturday morning despite holiday as meeting of Sindh Cabinet was scheduled that day early in the morning, saying, “It is their job to obey orders.”

The government employees are doubtful of new chief minister’s intentions, saying they still don’t know whether he is serious in doing something or just holding meetings… “Guftun, Nishistun, Barkhastun”. “We are confused as the Chief Minister Sindh as well as some ministers do reach early in the morning but many high officials and other ministers are still late as before.”

They opined that early meetings were useless if they didn’t lead to results; they are just photo sessions. Majority viewed that whole hustle bustle was just to keep media and people involved and busy, ” there is no change because attitude and working of the officials concerned is about the same.”

It is also pertinent to be mention here that the some government officials are enjoying holidays for four days in a week neglecting issues of common man and remain absent from their offices as it happened in the past.

Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah approved around Rs 24 million last year for installation of biometric attendance system at government departments, directing the Information Technology Department to start the system within two months, and stressing, “The attendance system must be connected with the payroll of the employees to help and identify habitual absentees and latecomers”. Under the process, thumb impressions of about 2,200 employees were saved, but over the time its implementation was halted due to reasons unknown.

When the CM plans to visit somewhere, the concerned secretary and DG are informed before hand and they manage to reach the site accordingly, otherwise it’s as usual as always. According to lower employees, the actions of ministers and higher officials are merely an eye-wash, “they all are on the same page and not accountable to anything and all the sufferings are only for lower employees.”

Tea stall vendors Ali Bux, Khalid, Bashir and others outside the government offices told Daily Times that 80 percent employees are still late comers and after attendance they never return till the other day, while majority of the employees remain on holidays or are engaged in other activities. However, there are still high hopes from the new chief minister and in this regard he once again gave ultimatum to clean the mega city within next 10 days.

Chief Minister chaired a meeting on Monday to discuss cleanliness in Karachi and said he will turn his attention to the rest of Sindh soon.