LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has issued a ‘fact sheet’ on “seven-year corruption and misuse of public funds by the Punjab government”.

While releasing the report, a PAT spokesman claimed billions of rupees had been misappropriated in 10 projects in the seven-year rule of the PML-N, while the Punjab government had played the role of a silent spectator.

The report, he claimed, was just “food for thought” for probe agencies and suggested the investigation of a former director general of the Lahore Development Authority and close aide of the prime minister could lead to even bigger scandals of the PML-N government.

The report states that when an adviser of the Transparency International objected to the misappropriations, he was silenced by being appointed adviser to the prime minister. It also stated that prolonged boycott of provincial assembly proceedings by the opposition encouraged the Shahbaz Sharif government to indulge in corruption without any hindrance and spend the money of the national exchequer at will.

Referring to Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood being allegedly caught in CCTV footage, the report stated the masses had watched the minister accepting bribe and the chief minister patronised him instead of holding an inquiry against him. Similarly, it recalled, the provincial government halted its campaign of demolishing illegal plazas when it learnt that former law minister Rana Sanaullah had also built a plaza illegally. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had ordered an inquiry into the issue but its findings were never made public, it added.

Referring to Justice Mansoor Ali Shah commission’s report on flawed repairs of barrages and spurs involving multi-billion-rupee funds in the wake of devastating floods, it claimed the commission found the then irrigation secretary responsible for losses but the report was never released despite passage of five and a half years, while the secretary concerned was promoted by the CM to a more lucrative post.

The report also recalled the Rs30 billion Sasti Roti project and lamented its report was being kept secret even after four years as ‘mechanical tandoors’ for those ‘Sasti rotis’ were nowhere to be seen now.

It also alleged that billions of rupees of taxpayers’ money had been spent on “flop” Daanish schools and youth festivals. The government was also reluctant to hold audit of Rs150 billion local government funds since 2009, when the local body system put in place by former president retired Gen Musharraf was wrapped up and local bodies’ affairs were run through government-appointed administrators.

Talking about power projects, the report stated that delay in Nandipur project had caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer and no guilty person had been penalised despite responsibility being claimed for the delay.

Likewise, for the 100MW Quaid-i-Azam solar park, the government acquired Rs150 billion loan from the Bank of Punjab while the chief minister had said in his press conference recently that only Rs13 billion were consumed to produce 18MW electricity from the facility.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2015

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