Circa 1925: The undivided Indian subcontinent ruled by the British, consisted of approximately 2 million government employees and about 20 million pensioners. The number of ghost employees and ghost pensioners was zero and no one fraudulently received salary or pension from two different government departments. Now fast forward by a century, 2025 to be exact, and focus on just two government departments.

The Karachi Development Authority's recent audit revealed that Rs667 million or 30% of KDA's total pension fund of Rs2.21 billion was fraudulently received by some 500 bogus pensioners. Another 2024 report, on Karachi Municipal Corporation, uncovered approximately 950 ghost employees, besides another 200 individuals drawing salaries from two public sector organisations simultaneously. The two examples are just the tip of an iceberg in an ocean of 'ghosts'.

How does Pakistan reform its bizarre 'multiple salary and ghost pensioner' crisis? The KMC's proud announcement of purchasing very expensive Enterprise software from a global company for........

© The Express Tribune