NAB Sindh launches offensive against corrupt mafia

ISLAMABAD: With the change of the top command, the NAB Sindh chapter has launched a much-awaited offensive against corruption and misuse of authority with the arrests of key officials having already started taking place whereas 22 references involving plunder of billions of rupees have already been prepared and filed.
Two senior bureaucrats have been arrested a few days back while a couple of others were to be arrested on Monday by the NAB but the concerned officials got a stay from a court of law to pre-empt their arrest by the Bureau. There are a number of key officials and certain politicians who are in the focus of the NAB Sindh for having been involved in corruption and misuse of authority.
Headed by Lt Col (retd) Sirajul Naeem, who was appointed as the NAB Sindh chief in December 2014, the bureau’s Karachi chapter like its Islamabad headquarters and other chapters is also faced with the challenge of cleansing the augean stables of its own administration infected with the moles of corrupt and Qabza mafia.
The of late arrests of two senior bureaucrats — provincial secretary excise and taxation and Sindh director anti-corruption — by NAB Karachi has sent a wave of fear around the members of bureaucracy, who had been grossly misused by the corruption and Qabza mafia for their vested interests.
Previously, the NAB Sindh was led by a favourite of the PPP leadership — Wajid Durrani, a retired police officer, who was arrested in the Murtaza murder case but was later acquitted. He was considered a blue-eyed of the last PPP government and was thus given the key position and upon retirement was made the NAB Sindh chief.
Senior spokesman of NAB, Islamabad, when contacted said that with the appointment of Lt Col (retd) Sirajul Naeem, things had improved a lot in NAB Sindh.The NAB Karachi sources also say that the cases of controversial land allotment in the province are too many besides the massive misuse of development funds. It is said that the Bureau is presently looking into several cases where the development funds were released against thedevelopment work completed only on paper where no work was done on the ground.
Not only that among the Sindh rulers, there are some who are allegedly involved in land grabbing but also a few aides of the federal government have also their share in the alleged loot and plunder of the wealth of the people of Sindh.
It is said that one such case recently taken up by the Supreme Court, the involved land is worth over Rs500 billion. The apex court had sought a report from the NAB on 530 acres and 341 acres mangrove-covered land in Karachi which allegedly involve some big names including an aide of the prime minister.
The NAB’s offensive against the corrupt mafia of Sindh coincides with the military establishment’s keenness to cleanse Karachi in particular of all the mafias. A few weeks back, the Karachi corps commander issued some clear warnings to the Sindh government but the PPP leadership took it as an interference in political affairs.
No less than the PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari had suggested to the corps commander, Karachi, in a Geo interview that generals and politicians should focus “on their respective jobs”.