500 Sindh govt officials opt for plea bargain

KARACHI: The Sindh government has submitted details of its employees, including 93 civil servants, to the Sindh High Court who opted for voluntary return or plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The details also include Secretary Finance Syed Hassan Naqvi, who also heads the education department. Naqvi has returned over Rs12 million to the NAB. Grade 20 officer Sohail Bachani, who allegedly committed corruption in the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD), also opted for plea bargain.

Irrigation Department’s Grade 19 officers Chief Engineer Sukkur Syed Sardar Ali Shah and Project Director Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) Zahoor Ahmed Memon have also voluntarily returned the money.

Ghulam Mujtaba Dhamra, Habib-ur-Rehman Sheikh, Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, former deputy commissioner Tando Allahyar Syed Mehdi Shah, Secretary Lyari Development Authority (LDA) Shahnawaz Khan, Deputy Secretary Labor and Human Resources Saleem Baloch also opted for plea bargain.

Grade 18 officers, including Ghulam Mehmood Korejo, Mohammad Mehboob, Ehsan Ali Jamali, Asif Rahim, Bashir Ali Jamani, Haider Ali Khawaja, Ghulam Akbar Ali Lashari, Huzoor Bux, and Abdul Wahid and grade 17 officers including Amanullah Qureshi, Akhtar Hussain Talpur, Abdul Jabbar Abbasi, Abdul Sattar Khoso and six officers of Shaheed Benazirabad also opted for plea bargain.

The Sindh High Court on December 2, 2020, ordered the provincial government to submit the details of employees, who had opted for voluntary return or plea bargain. Following the SHC orders, Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah sought the record of officers and lower grade employees, who had opted for voluntary return or plea-bargain with the NAB along with the details of departmental action against them and their present positions of service, for submission to the court.

Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah has directed all department heads, including IGP, secretary Ombudsman and principal secretaries of Chief Minister’s House and Governor House, to submit the details of employees who had opted for voluntary return or plea bargain with the NAB, the allegations and disciplinary action. According to official figures, near 500 employees have either opted for VR or plea bargain with the NAB and many of them are holding important positions in the Sindh civil service.