KARACHI: Only 227 persons were arrested from across nine districts of the province on corruption charges in a total of 776 cases registered by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Sindh in four years.

The information was shared in writing with the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday in response to a question asked by Pakistan Muslim League-Functional lawmaker Nusrat Sehar Abbasi.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, who holds the ACE portfolio, was not present in the house. However, Mr Shah in his reply in writing stated that 227 persons were arrested in three districts of Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur from 2009 to 2013.

According to the reply, the anti-corruption department recovered Rs836,630 in its action against individuals in various ministries with the maximum amount of Rs807,630 being recovered from Hyderabad district alone.

The details of the cases and arrests in the nine districts showed that three persons were arrested and Rs14,000 of ‘trap money’ was recovered in nine corruption cases registered in Karachi East; nine persons were arrested and Rs15,000 of ‘trap money’ was recovered in eight cases registered in Karachi West. Karachi South district recorded 181 cases with 50 arrests, and the ACE Hyderabad zone registered 118 cases and arrested 36 persons.

Of the 776 cases of corruption, most cases (260) were registered in Larkana district where 63 persons were arrested in four years. The cases and arrests in the three other districts were: Jamshoro [113 cases, 40 arrests], Mirpurkhas [42 cases, 17 arrests], and Sukkur [35 cases, nine arrests], while there was no mention of any case or arrest in the document that included Benazirabad district among the nine districts.

The house was further informed that the ACE had registered only one case in the environment and alternative energy department against an assistant superintendent. The case was still in court, the chief minister stated.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Mehmood Abdul Razzaque asked about action taken in the case of misappropriation of 16,214 wheat bags containing 1,621,449 metric tonnes wheat from Bolhari godown which had been referred by the food ministry for criminal action and recoveries of the government loss. In his written answer, the chief minister said the stock was valued at Rs42.767 million from Bolhari godown. The ACE Kotri had registered a case, investigated it and filed a charge-sheet in the court of special judge, anti-corruption, Hyderabad, on May 7, 2016 against the official in charge of the Bolhari food godown, Syed Manzoor Ahmed Shah, and three watchmen Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Mehtab Shah and Habibullah. The case was in court, he added.

In reply to the question asked by MQM lawmaker Heer Soho about police representation in the ACE, Mr Shah said 60pc of deputy directors were from DMG, ex-PCS and police. Seventy per cent assistant directors came from the PAS, police and ex-PCS and PSS. Besides, 30pc of inspectors, 50pc of prosecution inspectors, 30pc of sub-inspectors, and 25pc of ASIs, head constables and constables came from the police department on deputation as per various notifications issued by the government since 1993.

During the question and answer session, Ms Abbasi lodged her protest with the acting speaker, Syeda Shehla Raza, over the comments of minister for industries Manzoor Wassan blaming her party for allotting 36,000 acres of land ‘illegally’ during the tenure of a previous provincial government.

Ms Abbasi, who placed most questions of the day, said she was not satisfied with the government’s replies and said the ACE’s performance was pathetically poor.

MQM lawmaker Dilawar Qureshi said it seemed that just nine districts of Sindh were involved in corruption while there had been no corrupt practice in all the remaining 20 districts.

Senior minister for parliamentary affairs, Nisar Khuhro, who was defending the government in the absence of the chief minister, said the ACE initiated action where it had received complaints.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker Samar Ali Khan said just 227 arrests with almost no punishment to any of the suspects clearly showed that the department was not properly functioning. Mr Khuhro argued that the ACE had prepared solid cases against the accused, but their conviction was the job of the courts. He said the burden of undertrial cases was huge and he was not sure whether the anti-corruption courts had adequate number of judges.

He said all the corruption cases were being tried in courts and the accused had full rights to defend themselves. He admitted that only 15 of the persons, who had been arrested on the charges of graft, were given punishment. The conviction rate remained seven to eight per cent, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2017