UMERKOT: A mysterious fire on Saturday night partially damaged the five-year record of the Umerkot Municipal Committee (UMC) a day before a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team from Karachi was scheduled to arrive in connection with a corruption case against certain UMC officials.

The Karachi NAB had started an investigation after a complainant, Kirshan Khatri, claimed misappropriation of large amounts released to various contractors out of the Rs12 billion funds put at the disposal of the UMC, previously known as the taluka municipal administration. It was claimed that payments had been made to contractors against work that had never been carried out. It was also alleged that several development schemes were revised in violation of the prescribed rules.

The NAB team had asked the officials concerned to appear before it on Monday along with the financial record pertaining to the allocation for uplift schemes and expenditure over the last five years.

Also read: NAB arrests KP additional home sec, two others in Rs50* *millon scam

Chief Municipal Officer Ameer Bukhsh Junejo said on Sunday that a fire broke out due to electrical short circuit while the staff was sorting out the record in preparation for the investigation. Although the record was damaged, the files sought by the NAB team were intact, he claimed.

Police were looking into the cause of the fire and extent of the damage caused by it, said Umerkot SHO Atta Mohammed Leghari.

Lal Malhi, the MNA belonging to the PTI, however, alleged that evidence of corruption had been destroyed and demanded an inquiry into the “deliberately caused” fire. He argued that the fire caused no other damage to the office except for the record “sought by the NAB”.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2015

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