|
|
|
| June 25, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1426 |
PPP deplores corruption in dist govts
ISLAMABAD, June 24: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has expressed concern over the reports of ‘massive frauds, embezzlements, bogus payments’ and other financial irregularities in several district governments of Punjab and the NWFP.
The auditor general of Pakistan has detected financial fraud to the tune of Rs5 billion in 34 district governments of Punjab and eight of the NWFP during 2002-2003.
Dera Ghazi Khan, Attock, Mianwali, Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi and Jhang are some of the districts in Punjab where corruptions level was found to be very high, said PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf in a statement issued here on Friday.
In the Frontier province, Dera Ismail Khan, Sawabi, Karak, Haripur and Batagram districts were found to be reeking with corruption and financial mismanagement according to the audit report, the PPP leader said.
He claimed that corruption had increased during the military regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf.
“Corruption has not only increased, but corruption charges are also being pursued only against the regime’s political opponents, claims of across the board accountability notwithstanding,” Mr Ashraf said.
He said just a week ago, former National Accountability Bureau chairman disclosed in a press interview that judges and journalists were exempted from accountability on his decision. Gen Amjad also disclosed that before he left NAB in 2001, he was investigating various charges against six high-ranking military officers. Those cases of corruption have since been shelved and no one knows what happened to them.
The former NAB chief has refused to divulge the names of corrupt senior officers of the military against whom he claims to have initiated investigations, the PPP leader said.
The real corrupt ones were being protected by the state and blackmailed into joining the cabinet, whereas those innocent are being maligned to break their will to oppose dictatorship and fascism, Mr Ashraf alleged.
He said he would not be surprised if the mayors of the district governments accused of corruption in the audit reports were spared the rod of accountability in return for agreeing to carrying out the regime’s ‘agenda to turn Pakistan into a garrison state’.
|
|
|
|
