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Thursday April 25, 2024

Iesco employee moves NAB against corruption, irregularities

Seeks action against those responsible for loadshedding

By Usman Manzoor
June 26, 2015
ISLAMABAD: At a time when almost every citizen of the country is perturbed by load shedding and enormous electricity bills, a courageous employee of Islamabad Electric Supply Company Limited (Iesco) has formally asked chairman National Accountability Bureau to initiate action again those responsible for loadshedding, corruption and irregularities in Iesco.
Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah, an employee of Iesco, who had detected electricity theft at former dictator Pervez Musharraf’s farmhouse, has filed a complaint with chairman NAB saying “the board of directors of Iesco, ignoring the legal advice of Iesco counsel (Anwar Kamal) and at the risk of losing million of rupees, withdrew a writ petition number 1411/2011 against Nepra and a private company, which was duly reported by The News on July 8, 2013. However no action has been taken against the culprits till now”.
Shah has written in his complaint that the area covered under the exclusive jurisdiction of Iesco for the provision of electricity covers Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock districts.
“That every citizen of Pakistan, has been burdened by excessive load shedding during the last few years, and to add to insult to injury, the price of electricity has been increased to such a level that it has become increasingly difficult for the public at large to pay big sums as electricity bills.”
“That billions of rupees of this nation, and hard earned taxpayers’ money has gone down the drain only due to extremely incompetent and corrupt officials. That for a very long time, stories of massive corruption involving losses of billion of rupees, posting of blue-eyed officers, misuse and wastage of Iesco cars by the officials of ministry of water and power, re-appointment of officers involved in massive corruption and irregularities, have surfaced in different segments of media. That similarly, corrupt officers, accused and prima facie held guilty of sheltering defaulters of millions of rupees and illegally debiting the same in the accounts of government departments, are being let off the hook without any disciplinary action, instead of referring their cases to investigating agencies. That for the interest of public at large and to save a public sector company looted by some vested interests and therefore to save it from going bankrupt, it is imperative that this honorable investigation agency should take action against the corrupt/culprits and fix the responsibility for recovery of billions of rupees from the corrupt”, the complaint adds.