PTI vows not to tolerate ‘corrupt bureaucracy’ in Sindh anymore

Hailing the federal government’s recently announced civil service reforms aimed at improving governance, the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leaders in Sindh said on Saturday that the party would not tolerate corrupt bureaucracy in the province anymore.

Addressing a press conference in the Sindh Assembly, PTI central vice-president Haleem Adil Sheikh said the corrupt bureaucracy had been playing a key role in damaging the entire system of governance in the province. “But corruption in Sindh and delinquent officers will be tolerated no more,” he warned. He said the Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020, recently approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan, showed that the PTI had been working to fix the system and take action against corruption offices.

Sheikh said Sindh had some honest officers, who were serving the nation and the country and also fighting corruption and bribery. “But unfortunately, the Sindh government is not ready to tolerate these honest officers and they are not given a chance to serve people.”

He said every officer who had tried to work and serve people was transferred out of the province while postings were given to the blue-eyed boys, who obeyed the orders of the corruption mafia. “It is said that politicians are corrupt, but, in fact, corrupt bureaucracy is always behind these corrupt people,” he said.

“In the past, no government had ever taken action against this corrupt bureaucracy, but the PTI’s government is determined to take action against all corrupt officers, and the corrupt bureaucrats of Sindh would also be sacked,” he said.

“In the Sindh province, corrupt officers who had struck plea bargain after committing corruption of billions of rupees are being restored to their posts to do more corruption,” he said. He said the Civil Servants Efficiency and Discipline Rules 2020 had been announced and implemented, and now corrupt officers who had struck plea bargain would be sacked.

“No posting and no promotion should be given to corrupt officers, and instead they should face inquiries,” Sheikh said. He said now the inquiries against corrupt officers would be completed within 105 days instead of prolonging them for years and years. “Under the new law, no officer could stay in one province for more than 10 years, as a rotation policy for them has already been implemented.”

The PTI said officers whose assets were beyond their known sources of income would be considered corrupt. “After this law, there would be an immense pressure on the government of Sindh to take action against its corrupt bureaucrats.” He said the Sindh government expelled an honest officer like AD Khuwaja to replace him with a “yes-man”.

PTI Karachi president and MPA Khurram Sherzaman said the tales of the PPP’s corruption were well- known all over Sindh, from Karachi to Kashmore. “Every department of the Sindh government is corrupt,” he added.

Criticising the Pakistan Democrtic Movement, Sher Zaman said that the alliance of 12 parties was misleading people. “All corrupt people would be made accountable. The people of Sindh are now fed up with the PPP and it would soon vanish from Sindh.”

PTI MPA Jamal Siddiqui said the prime minister was making efforts to support the economy, and now closed industries were gradually opening. “But due to the bad governance of the PPP-led Sindh government, the industrial zones of Khairpur and Islamkot are still closed,” he said. He said the rulers of Sindh were bringing new formulas for corruption. He vowed that they would make these rulers accountable for closing industrial zones in Sindh.