PTI wants to expose ‘financial irregularities of Sindh govt’ in PA

The legislators of the main opposition party in the Sindh Assembly, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have appealed to the speaker of the provincial legislature to allot time so that the House could thoroughly discuss the report of the auditor general on the financial year 2017-18.

The PTI lawmakers have sought time so that the opposition could “expose fiscal wrongdoings to the tune of several billions of rupees in different departments of the Sindh government in one financial year alone”.

The appeal to this effect was made by MPA of PTI Khurrum Sher Zaman while addressing a news conference at the provincial assembly’s building on Wednesday. He was accompanied on the occasion by the parliamentary party leader of PTI in PA, Haleem Adil Sheikh, and MPAs Omar Ammari and Dr Seema Zia.

“Each one of the [opposition] MPA has made ample preparation, as they will inform the House in what manner the public money was looted,” said Zaman while appealing to the speaker that the PA should discuss the AG’s recent report.

He said that the 18th constitutional amendment should be reviewed, as the case of governance in Sindh had amply shown that the authority derived from the provincial autonomy was brazenly used to plunder the public money.

The opposition lawmaker said that he would submit proofs of corruption in governance in the province to the director general of the National Accountability Bureau in Karachi as well as the province’s Anti-Corruption Establishment so that decisive action could be taken against the plunderers.

He said that the outbreak of the epidemic of HIV/AIDS near the native town of the ruling Bhutto clan had amply shown the extent of bad governance and corrupt practices in the province by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

He added that the recent report of the AG had sufficiently proven that corrupt practices had occurred in the affairs of the provincial government’s health and education departments. Zaman said the AG’s report had shown that financial irregularities to the tune of Rs13.5 billion did occur in the finance department headed by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah himself.

He said that financial irregularities to the tune of Rs29.5 billion were detected in the case of the works & services department, adding that financial wrongdoings of Rs77.5 billion were detected in the case of the food department, as the department made payments without fulfilling the financial formalities.

The lawmaker said that financial irregularities of Rs27.5 billion were reported in the case of the excise & taxation department, adding that Mukesh Kumar Chawla who had been incharge minister of the department for the past several years had to be publicly held accountable for this embezzlement.

He said the AG’s report had detected wrongdoings of Rs181 billion in the case of the CM’s secretariat, as this component alone had shown the gravity of the situation and had also thoroughly proven that the menace of corruption had become widespread in the affairs of the provincial government.

He added that similar financial misappropriation had been detected in the case of the Sindh Agriculture Department as well as the province’s Board of Revenue. The PTI lawmakers announced on the occasion that it was high time that a movement be launched to get rid of the provincial government of the PPP owing to the menace of corruption.

They said that the AG office had done hard work to compile the record of massive corruption committed during the PPP’s regime in the province. The opposition lawmakers said that the record of corruption pertaining to the governance in Sindh was of such historical and academic value that it could be made part of the school curricula to make students fully aware about the methods being used by the rulers of the province to commit widespread corruption.