PTI justifies Establishment Division’s decision to transfer senior officers

Justifying the Establishment Division’s decision to transfer senior police officers and provincial secretaries from Sindh to other provinces as per the new policy of rotation, Sindh Assembly opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh has shown concerns over the chief minister’s convening an emergency meeting, arguing that his system would not work without transferred officers,

The Establishment Division in Islamabad on Wednesday transferred eight deputy inspectors general (DIGs) of Sindh, who were serving in important positions in the province. Similarly, four provincial secretaries have also been transferred from the province.

Accusing the Sindh government of wreaking havoc on civil service officers and ruining their careers by involving them in corrupt practices, Sheikh, who is also the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s central vice-president, said honest officers having a good reputation after posting in Sindh either became or made part of the corruption system as there had been an administrative catastrophe in Sindh.

The PTI leader said there were cases against 25 provincial secretaries, which included 15 in service and 10 retired bureaucrats. “As many as 1,550 government officers and other officials in the province are facing corruption cases.”

In Sindh, 850 officers had confessed their corrupt practices and paid back through voluntary return and play bargain while the National Accountability Bureau had recovered Rs35 billion from those officers, he claimed. “Eight hundred officers have been reappointed after the plea bargain while some of the confessing officers have also got departmental promotions.”

Sheikh termed the decision of the Establishment Division justified and legal and dismissed the point of CM Shah that rules clearly defined that only the appointments of chief secretary and the inspector general of police were made in consultation with the provincial government.

“There were differences between the IG Sindh and the chief minister on the issue of police officer Farrukh Bashir’s promotion,” he said, adding that officers who did not comply with the rotation policy would also have their hands stained with corruption or those officers were going to ravage their career and bright future by staying in Sindh.