May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

KARACHI, May 1: The Sindh government has closed the book on the March 20 fire that ravaged the Board of Revenue’s offices and destroyed records of land worth billions of rupees despite the fact that the blaze was found to be an act of arson by two investigations separately undertaken by police and the provincial administration.

Inquiry committees formed independently by the chief secretary and the Sindh inspector-general of police to determine the cause of the fire concurred that it was a “deliberate attempt” to destroy the important official records.

The committees recommended to the provincial government to file a case with the police for a complete investigation.

However, members of the committees told Dawn that they were not very hopeful that the provincial government would move for the registration of an FIR to initiate a criminal investigation, recalling that in the past recommendations for the institution of cases on the basis of reports submitted by inquiry committees went unheeded.

“The case seems to be over now,” said a senior official, who was a member of one of the inquiry teams that recommended a criminal investigation to bring to book the real culprits behind the arson.

“This is not the first time that a case which has been found to be a result of criminal negligence will not be probed in such a way that the real culprits are exposed.”

He said the only hope now was that some accused arrested in another case might confess to his involvement in the Board of Revenue arson under interrogation.

“But I don’t think that there would be a need for an FIR for investigations and the matter is all but closed now.”

A three-member police investigation team blamed arson for the secretariat fire in its report to the Sindh IG, an assertion subsequently corroborated by the provincial government inquiry committee, which was headed by the additional chief secretary. The suspicion that arson was behind the March 20 blaze in the Board of Revenue offices was grounded in the fact that the fire coincided with the beginning of two days of provincial holidays granted on account of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (Peace by upon him).

Further investigations proved that it was no coincidence that recent fires at government buildings in the city, such as the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and the Radio Pakistan buildings, had occurred on holidays.

However, police authorities believe while the department had initiated and completed the inquiry on the directives of the then Sindh IG, Azhar Ali Farooqui, it was the provincial government’s job to decide about the future course of action.

“The police submitted its report and recommended action. Police findings have been supported by the government’s committee,” said a senior police official.

“The police are not in a position to pursue the case, as the aggrieved party in this particular case is the Board of Revenue or the Sindh government. Any follow-up action on the committee recommendations is now the job of the government and not of the police.”

However, one of officials, who was part of the Sindh government’s committee, termed the provincial administration’s approach ‘justified’ to some extent, adding that apart from criminal investigations the team had also recommended measures to preserve such records in the future.

“Some of the partially destroyed records could still be salvaged,” said the official. “We have also recommended that the record be computerised with strict security measures to avoid such incidents in the future.”

During the course of the investigation conducted by the police, it came out that in 2005 a private company was assigned the task of computerizing the province’s land records and undertaking a survey of Karachi, which was scrapped a few months after being initiated, following a dispute within the then ruling coalition.