October 26, 2001	Friday	Shaba'an 8, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The defence division tops the list of the government ministries and divisions having the highest number of corrupt and inefficient officials, statistics, recently compiled by the establishment division, revealed to Dawn on Thursday.

Other divisions, leading the chart of having large numbers of corruption cases, are communications, railways and revenue.

The departments that have succeeded in getting a 100-per cent clean bill are the secretariats of the president and the chief executive, the information and telecommunication division and the parliamentary affairs division.

According to the statistics, of the about 12,000 disciplinary cases initiated since the military government took office in October 1999, around 2,400 cases pertain to the defence division. Over 1,400 of these cases have been decided and those found guilty have been handed down sentences of various nature.

Almost 1,500 cases were initiated against the officers of the communications division. As many as 1,000 odd cases out of a total 1,500 have been finalized.

The railways division’s figures of both the number of the initiated cases and those finalized match those of the communications division to a great extent.

The fourth on the chart is the revenue division that has around 1,100 cases initiated against its officials. However, this division’s   hallmark is that it has got the highest number of pending cases— of   the 1,100 cases, only 40 could be finalized.

Other major departments against whose officials corruption cases have either been finalized or are under process are the interior division (802 cases), the petroleum and natural resources division (770 cases), the finance division (523 cases), the auditor general of Pakistan revenues (400 cases), the industries  and production division (403 cases), the establishment division (354 cases), the defence production division (320 cases), the intelligence bureau (250 cases), the food agriculture and livestock division (247 cases) and the commerce division (204 cases).

Besides a few divisions against whose officials no case has been initiated so far, the divisions that have the least number of officers with questionable track record are the economic affairs division whose three officials are facing charges, followed by the law, justice and human rights division whose nine officials are under trial.

The fact that about 45 per cent cases are pending has irked President Gen Pervez Musharraf and some others at the helm of affairs, who have been expecting a much rapid cleansing of the bureaucracy.

It has been learnt that on the special directives of the president, the process of execution of the disciplinary cases has been streamlined to hasten finalization of the cases.

Mentioning the reasons for the delay in the finalization of the cases, official sources divulged that several discrepancies and violation of regulations in disciplinary proceedings against the government officials under the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance 2000 had been witnessed due to which the “purging process” had slowed down.

They said all ministries and divisions had accordingly been asked to strictly adhere to the procedures laid down in the ordinance. The ministries and the divisions had also been directed that extreme care be observed while dealing with such cases and it be ensured that the accused were proceeded against according to the rules.

The sources said such violations vitiated the proceedings and could not withstand judicial scrutiny. They cited the example  of a recent Supreme Court case in which the major penalty of removal from service imposed upon the accused was set aside and the case was remanded to fresh inquiry.