KARACHI, April 14: The Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, has asked the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, to inquire into the affairs of the Karachi Race Club, about which a number of irregularities have been brought to his knowledge, it was authoritatively learnt.
Through a letter sent to the City Nazim by the governor’s additional secretary, he has asked him to nominate Naib Nazim, Tariq Hasan, as inquiry officer to look into the irregularities allegedly being committed in the KRC, and submit his detailed report for his (governor’s) perusal.
Acting on the governor’s directives, the City Nazim has constituted a two-member committee to probe into the alleged irregularities.
The committee assigned the task of looking into the KRC affairs concerning renewal of licence for horse-racing is headed by the Naib Nazim. Another member is the Nazim of Gulberg Town’s Union Council-6, also a leader of Al-Khidmat group in the City Council.
Mentioning the irregularities that had been brought to the notice of the governor, it was stated in the letter that though Section 2(b) of Sindh Prevention of Gambling Ordinance, 1978, clearly states that “gambling includes wagering or betting including a wager or bet made in respect of any horse, mare or gelding running in competition with any other horse, mare or gelding or of the rider thereof,” there have been a number of reports in the Press and otherwise of ‘gambling’ including betting and wagering at the KRC, patronized by the powerful Race Club Mafia.
It has also been brought to the governor’s knowledge that fighting between various stake-holders, i.e. managing committee, horse owners, jockeys, employees, etc, has created an atmosphere of confrontation and mistrust.
The other allegations include rigging of races and fraud through bookies; storage/sale of narcotics and intoxicants along with prostitution on the premises of the club; non-maintenance of proper accounts and non-payment of government dues.
Further elaborating, the letter said that there are complaints from insiders of massive deterioration in the overall management of the club, but the managing committee has taken no notice of these complaints and the KRC is defaulter in payment of government dues (KESC, KWSB) amounting to lakhs of rupees. Besides, they also have to pay the balance amount of Rs800,000 for renewal of license for the year 2000, and another Rs1 million for the year 2001 to the Sindh Government.
In addition to this, there is no proper accounting as the accountant has left due to financial constraints. The situation is not acceptable, as not only do accounts have to be maintained, but also audited on a regular basis.
