June 11, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1429

KARACHI, June 10: The Sindh government has ordered investigations into all illegal allotments of land made during the last five years across the province, including Karachi.

Inquiries will be conducted through the Enquiries and Anti-Corruption Establishment (EACE) which, during the last three years, has unearthed alleged plunder of 2,500 acres of government land worth Rs31 billion besides a land scam of Rs330 million in the New Sabzi Mandi on the Super Highway.

All cases pending for inquiries with the EACE for the last two decades would be decided within three months.

The directives for the inquiries were issued by the adviser to the chief minister for EACE, Gul Mohammad Laat, during a presentation of the department by its chairman Faheem Mughal on Tuesday.

Mr Laat pledged to streamline the inquiries procedure so that cases registered against government functionaries could be processed swiftly, which would help eliminate corruption.

Besides, he said, the government is also considering increasing salaries, allowances and rewards for the staff of the EACE on the pattern of the motorway police to attract honest and dedicated officers.

He deplored that cases against officials had been pending for the last 20 years, and in many cases officials against whom inquiries were pending had retired.

It was also pointed out that a Rs150 million wheat scam in the agriculture department resulted in creating an artificial shortage of wheat in the province.