Khairpur administration takes custody of Bilawal Park after alleged scam

SUKKUR: The district administration Khairpur has taken over all affairs of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park Khairpur after the alleged corruption surfaced in park’s financial accounts.The registrar of Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU) Khairpur on July 28, 2020, had written a letter to the deputy commissioner Khairpur stating that in the advent of Covid-19, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park Khairpur remained closed and its income generating sources including cafeteria, car parking, gate entry tickets and others were adversely affected, so the MoU signed on October 28, 2011 between SALU and district administration Khairpur should be considered as null and void.The DC Khairpur, Ahmed Ali Qureshi, confirmed that the district administration had taken over all the affairs of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park, saying he has currently been scrutinising the details of the MoU signed between the two parties. He said after reviewing all the documents and accounts of the park, and if he found any misappropriation, he would suggest for high level inquiry against the alleged corruption.The DC Khairpur said he had also written a letter to the park’s management demanding details of all assets, including the accounts of the revenue generated through car parking, gate entry fees, cafeteria and other resources. Meanwhile, the sources said total amount of Rs250,000 monthly was generated from Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park, saying the SALU Khairpur had opened a tender for gate fee collections amounting of Rs151,000 monthly in 2019.The sources also claimed that Rs2.5 million was generated from the park in a year, so Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur had almost earned around Rs26.4 million in ten years of its tenure. It is pertinent to mention that on July 28, Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur had terminated its MoU with Sindh government to take care of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park after a news story was published on July 27 in daily ‘The News’ about Rs2 million alleged corruption in the park’s account.The DC Khairpur had also taken notice of the published story of alleged corruption and had written a letter to the director CBC SALU Khairpur, seeking financial records of the park. The director CBC told the DC Khairpur that he did not have any financial record of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Park, telling him that a retired employee of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur had been taking care of all financial affairs of the park, including the details of generated revenue.