KARACHI: Kamal invites NAB to probe city govt affairs
KARACHI, May 30: The City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, presenting himself for accountability, has asked the National Accountability Bureau to probe all affairs of the city government from the day he assumed charge to date and make its report public.
“I present myself as city nazim for accountability. I ask the NAB to hold a thorough probe my assets. I'm ready to face every punishment if a single extra rupee is proved in my assets,” he said.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a seminar on “Corruption-free Society - Suggestions and Measures” at the Al-Markaz-i-Islami. The seminar was organised by the city government in collaboration with the NAB Sindh.
Mr Kamal said since they were not living in an ideal society and since the 125,000 employees of the city government were part of the very society, they could be affected from the evils it had. He, however, said that the situation was improving as compared to the past.
He said his assuming charge of the office of the city nazim was a great challenge, as there was a perception about the city government that no work was done there without greasing the palms of officials.
“But we have changed this perception and I can now assure that all such activities have been finished during the last six months. In this effort, everybody from the DCO, Chief Controller (Buildings), KWSB MD to the lower staff has cooperated with me,” he said claimed.
The city nazim stressed the need for increasing the income of government employees to end the menace of corruption.
He observed that with the decrease in the bribery culture in the city government, the citizens' perception about its officials had changed, but there were still challenges to be met.
The nazim said the use of technology was a solution used to control corruption all over the world and the city government had introduced technology at its various tiers too.
He cited the health management information system, which had been introduced at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and hoped it would improve the hospital's affairs.
The Acting NAB (Sindh), DG Brig Ehsanul Haq, claimed that the menace of bribery in the country had been reduced considerably after the NAB’s establishment.
He said various methodologies were being adopted to put an end to the menace, adding that inspection teams were being constituted at the district-level that would identify bribery and take on-the-spot actions.
Brig Ehsan said that a monitoring system was also being introduced at public departments, while programmes were being held to raise awareness among the masses about corruption.
He told the seminar that during the last five years, 241 corruption references had been filed. About 125 out of these had been decided, 85 accused were awarded punishment and 116 cases were under hearing.
In 2005, Rs26 billion had been received and deposited in the national exchequer, he added.
The former chairman of the Sindh Public Service Commission, M M Usmani, said that providing jobs in violation of merit increased corruption.
He suggested establishment of institutions like the Public Service Commission at the district level for transparent recruitment and selection to government departments.
The KWSB MD, Brig Iftikhar Haider, town nazims of Landhi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Liaquatabad towns, Ismail Qureshi, Wasay Jalil and Osama Qadri respectively, economist Dr Qaiser Bengali, MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi and others also spoke.—PPI
