KARACHI: Deputy Mayor of Karachi, Salman Murad Baloch has said that under the vision of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the fund transfer system has been made uniform across all 25 towns of Karachi.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of a month-long training programme on Thursday, he urged all Town Municipal Corporations (TMCs) to collaborate with CLICK and SMART Researchers’ representatives.

The ceremony, held at the City Institute of Image Management in the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) building, marked the end of a comprehensive training initiative supported by the World Bank, CLICK, and SMART Researchers.

Deputy Mayor Baloch highlighted that this year, the Sindh government allocated funds equally to all towns in the annual budget, regardless of the political affiliation of the chairpersons, whether they belong to Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or Pakistan People’s Party. He attributed the efficient completion of the sacrificial waste removal operation during Eid-ul-Azha to the good relations and communication PPP maintains with all towns.

The training programme spanned over a month and included five sessions that trained more than 125 officers from finance, development planning, procurement, taxation, and social safeguard departments of 25 TMCs. Participants maintained full attendance throughout the sessions.

Lectures and training were conducted by experts, including former Director of Local Fund Audit Sindh, Arif Raza Khan, Director Legal IT SEPA, Muhammad Ayub Ali Khan, Project Manager SMART Researchers, Dr. Manzoor Hussain Memon, Advocate Sindh High Court SM Ali Jafri, Directing Staff of National Institute of Management Waqar Saleem Baig, and Anees Ahmed Khan. They guided participants on preparing schemes at the town municipal corporation level in accordance with World Bank rules and prioritizing them for approval.

At the closing ceremony, Project Manager SMART Researchers, Dr. Manzoor Hussain Memon, Executive Director SMART Researchers Aminullah Khan, and Director SMART Researchers Khurram Ahmed, along with Deputy Mayor Salman Murad Baloch, distributed certificates and gifts among the participants.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024