LAHORE, Oct 24: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has refused to give autonomy to the provincial Anti-Corruption Establishment, directing it to first improve its working within the given framework.

Besides, the post of the ACE director-general, which was earlier upgraded on the chief minister’s orders, has been reverted.

The ACE had forwarded a summary to the chief minister with demands of autonomous status, and double staff and budget required to deal with high-profile cases. It also sought a check on the financial matters of the district governments’ functioning.

The CM, however, turned down their requests saying it was too early to give financial and administrative autonomy to the ACE because it needed to focus on low-profile cases in order to provide relief to the people.

He reportedly asked the ACE officials to monitor the financial matters of the district governments, which had not been checked by any government agency since its establishment in August 2001 within the given resources.

Sources said the government had no plan to involve it in dealing with high-profile cases. The government, they said, did not want to make the ACE a sister body of the National Accountability Bureau.

The ACE has currently 700 employees, including six additional directors, 30 deputy directors, 70 assistant directors and 40 inspectors. Its 13 additional directors and two deputy directors have been working with the NAB on deputation for the last couple of years.

The ACE receives around 300 applications daily with a maximum number against the police and the revenue departments.

It has four circle offices in the province. The Lahore division office covers Kasur, Okara and Sheikhupura; Rawalpindi division handles the cases from Jhelum, Attock, Chakwal, Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat; Faisalabad division covers Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali and Toba Tek Singh and Multan division deals with the cases of corruption of 13 districts, which include Bahawalpur, Bahawalna-gar and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Talking to this reporter on Friday, an ACE official said every investigation officer was bound to dispose of an inquiry within three months, but most of them took more than six months for the same.

He said an action could be taken against the culprits under the West Pakistan Anti-Corruption Ordinance 1961 to expedite the inquiry procedure. However, the ACE is reportedly establishing a “vigilance wing” in a few weeks to monitor the activities of its staff. It will be headed by a deputy director.

It is hoped that the establishment of a vigilance wing will help check the activities of the ACE officials involved in corruption.