PA panel probes Rs100m corruption in Auqaf dept

KARACHI: An apparent corruption scam was unearthed on Tuesday in which Rs100 million were reportedly misappropriated over the past three years from funds meant to be spent on recruiting attendants and caretakers for shrines across the province. 

The issue came to fore during a meeting of the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Auqaf, Religious Affairs, Zakat and Ushr held at the assembly building’s committee room. The meeting was chaired by an opposition lawmaker, Pakistan Muslim League - Functional's Nusrat Sehar Abbasi.

The committee members came to know that instead of properly recruiting caretakers for shrines in the province, the officials had been recruiting caretakers as daily wagers. The committee members asked the relevant officials of Sindh Auqaf Department to provide the list of attendants recruited for the shrines during the last three years for which a sum of Rs100 million had been spent. The officials concerned, however, failed to provide the required information.

The meeting came to know that fake recruitments of 500 shrine attendants had been shown in official records in order to justify spending of Rs100 million. When the relevant official failed to submit any proof in this regard, they claimed that they had hired caretakers as daily wagers to get their services during Urs ceremonies. But they did not submit any record to validate their claim.

MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi said she had received threats for exposing corruption and financial wrongdoings being committed by Sindh government but she would continue her work. Abbasi said she would continue to expose corrupt practices being committed by the Sindh government.

Provincial secretary for zakat and ushr Riaz Hussain Soomro informed the meeting that there was no regular employee in his department as no formal approval had been given for regularising around 750 employees. Health minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said the provincial Zakat council’s present body was working on an interim basis and a summary had been sent to the Sindh chief minister for appointment of the committee’s new chairman.

Talking to The News, Nusrat Seher Abbasi said her standing committee would continue with the probe into the process of recruitment for shrine attendants on a temporary basis as it wanted to ascertain the actual process involved in hiring and firing of such attendants on a temporary basis and the time period for which the services of these attendants were sought. She said the Auqaf administrator, who was not present in yesterday’s meeting, would be asked to brief the committee members at the next meeting in this regard.