The Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has decided to lodge cases against over 100 officials associated with five departments of the provincial government for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices.
Sindh Adviser on Anti-Corruption, Information and Law Murtaza Wahab on Wednesday was given a briefing by Sindh Director for Anti-Corruption Fayyaz Abbasi about corruption cases being pursued by the provincial ACE.
Wahab said the provincial government had resolved to take stern action to root out corrupt practices in various government departments. The anti-corruption director informed the adviser that cases would be lodged against the officials of Sindh government’s departments of education, food, health and local government, and the Sindh Board of Revenue.
Abbasi told Wahab that cases would be lodged against over 100 officials of these departments either for their alleged corrupt practices or on the charges of exceeding the official authority. The anti-corruption director maintained that ACE had concrete evidence against the accused officials which proved that they had exceeded their official authority. Wahab accorded his approval for lodging cases against the officials accused of corruption.
The adviser said cases against the corrupt officials should be pursued and disposed of in an expeditious manner in order to make them examples for the rest of the staffers and officials of the provincial government.
He lauded ACE for its performance and said open inquiries should be conducted against corrupt officials while the same should be disposed of without being influenced by anyone. The menace of corruption had caused massive damage to society and all the quarters should combine their resources to wage a decisive war against the anti-social elements committing corruption, Wahab said.
He added that all the corrupt officials should be brought to justice and recommendations should be made to dismiss them from official service so that they would become examples for entire society.
Governor’s remarks
Reacting to a recent statement of Sindh Governor Imran Ismail regarding Sindh’s division, Wahab said there would be no compromise by the Sindh government on the province’s unity.
In a recent TV interview, the governor repeatedly talked about the division of Sindh on the administrative grounds. The information adviser said those who dreamt of the division of Sindh could not survive. He added that the post of the governor was a constitutional post and Ismail should confine himself within his constitutional limits and better avoid doing conversation on political issues. Wahab was of the view that the governor had issued such a statement in order to divert the public attention from defective and ill-advised policies of the present federal government.
NAB files reference
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has filed a reference against builders and revenue officers consequent upon the approval of a regional board meeting headed by Karachi’s director general of the bureau.
A spokesman said NAB filed a reference after the completion of an investigation in an accountability court against Javed Iqbal, Ghani Builders and Developers and Waseem Ahmed. Action was said to have been taken on receipts of various complaints submitted by allottees and affected people of M/s Rufi Pearl City.
The investigation proceedings revealed that the owners/accused persons in connivance with officers of the Board of Revenue and in a fictitious manner usurped government land by inserting fake entries of land measuring 19-20 acres in Scheme 33 Karachi.
The investigation has revealed that based on the prevailing market rate the accused persons caused losses amounting to Rs1,950 million to the national exchequer. Further investigations are underway.
