KARACHI: The wheels of the mega city's civic services may soon grind to a halt owing to a severe shortage of funds. 

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Commissioner Nawaz Waseem, on the directions of Deputy Mayor Arshad Vohra, has written a letter to the Sindh Local Government (LG) Department. 

In the letter, sent to the LG department secretary, the KMC commissioner has asked for Rs1.3 billion for disbursement as salaries and pension to its staff. 

The letter also states that staff members hailing from the Hindu community were also not paid their salaries despite the occurrence of Diwali due to the funds' shortage. 

The letter states that the nursing staff of the KMC-operated hospitals, workers at the city's zoo and officials of the fire brigade department have been working without salaries due to the dearth of funds. 

Furthermore, the letter raises the fear that the staff may, in protest, halt its work at any time which could lead to a severe crisis.