NOWSHERA: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said on Friday the Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was an autonomous body and it didn’t take dictation from anyone. Talking to reporters here, he said the commission had been established to eliminate the scourge of corruption and it would continue action across the board.He said the provincial assembly unanimously approved the setting up of the commission and all the appointments to the commission, including its head, have been made through a fair and transparent mechanism. The chief minister said the Ehtesab Commission, and not the provincial government, had arrested the Minister for Mines and Minerals Development Ziaullah Afridi.He said the provincial government had no control over the commission. “The commission can even arrest a sitting chief minister,” he added. Pervez Khattak said all the government servants and heads of departments were accountable to the commission and nobody should politicise it.He said the corrupt mafia was trying to politicise the commission to make it controversial to save their skin. “Anyone who is arrested by the commission in a corruption case starts issuing statements against the commission and provincial government,” he lamented.The chief minister hoped that the Ehtesab Commission would recover every embezzled penny from the corrupt. He maintained the commission was functioning within the mandate given to it by the provincial assembly. Rejecting allegations of Ziaullah Afridi, the chief minister said he had time and again directed the bureaucracy and his cabinet members to perform duty in accordance with the law and not succumb to pressure in the course of their duty. “Our government policies are crystal clear,” he said. “I made it clear to the bureaucracy and my cabinet members that everyone will be made accountable for his wrongdoings,” he added.He said the provincial government had banned mining for two years because the previous mining procedure was causing billion of rupees loss to the kitty. “Anyone who violated the ban, extended illegal lease and misused his authority is responsible for his actions,” the chief minister argued.He said the government had framed a new mining policy which would soon be enacted through the provincial assembly.
