THATTA: The Anti-Corruption Establishment sleuths have resumed conducting raids to arrest officers involved in large scale irregularities and embezzlement in 231 development schemes carried out by various departments in Thatta and Sujawal districts, it was learned on Wednesday.

The ACE is raiding different places for the arrest of the officials against whom FIRs have been lodged following a thorough enquiry which was launched on the directives of chief secretary.

The ACE monitoring and evaluation team made field visits and in-depth scanning of relevant record to unearth massive corruption in the departments of planning, development, highways and buildings in 231 development schemes out of which 24 did not even exist on ground and merely existed on paper.

Thatta ACE circle officer Mohammad Ashraf Soomro and sub-inspector Ali Ghulam Zardari confirmed lodging of FIRs against the ‘corrupt’ officers and said efforts had been stepped up to arrest them and produce them in court.

According to sources, former executive engineer of highways department, Shamsuddin Sheikh, is nominated in one case, former XEN of highways engineer Habibur Rehman Sheikh is named in three cases, former executive engineer of the same department Ghulam Shabbir Memon in two cases, XEN Nadeem Ahmed Memon in one case, assistant engineer irrigation Kalri Baghar circle, Sikandar Ali Khuwaja, in two cases, and a former engineer of buildings department Ali Mohammad Sheikh is nominated in eight cases of corruption.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2016