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LAHORE: The caretaker Punjab government told the Supreme Court on Saturday that all the civil servants working as heads or officials of the 56 public sector companies in the province were ready to return market-based salaries they had been withdrawing over and above their regular salaries.
Punjab Chief Secretary Akbar Khan Durrani told the three-judge bench of the apex court at the Lahore registry that the chief executives officers (CEOs) of the companies required two days to return the salaries.
The bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing a suo motu case regarding the salary structure of the public sector companies’ heads.
Take a look: High salaries in govt companies: CJP asks chief secy to draw up plan to recover money from CEOs
To a court query, the chief secretary stated that Punjab Saaf Pani Company’s CEO retired Capt Muhammad Usman had been drawing Rs1.3 million monthly salary.
At this, the CJP pointed out that even his own salary was less than Rs1.3m.
The chief justice summoned the CEOs of all the companies for Sunday (today) and also sought a list of the officers drawing salaries more than Rs300,000 per month from the companies.
The chief secretary told the bench that a list of 346 government officers working in the companies and authorities had been furnished to the NAB. He stated the NAB sought details beyond the scope of the court’s order.
The establishment division secretary also submitted a report about the officers of federal and Punjab governments posted in public companies on deputation.
However, the chief justice expressed dismay over not being provided the details of the other three provinces and directed the secretary to submit the same.
Chief Justice Nisar observed that the returned salaries of the companies’ heads would be deposited to the fund established for construction of dams in the country.
“Misuse of public money cannot be allowed,” the chief justice said and added that the government hospitals were shot of medicines and officers were enjoying luxuries.
VARSITIES: The Supreme Court disposed of a matter pertaining to appointment of vice chancellors at public sector medical universities in Punjab.
A law officer told the court that the VCs had been appointed at the remaining two medical varsities. He said Prof Dr Javed Akram and Prof Dr Mustafa Kamal had been appointed as VCs of the University of Health Sciences and the Nishter Medical University, Multan, respectably.
He said all the vacancies of the VCs at medical universities had been filled.
LCWU: Report of an inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court into appointment of Prof Dr Uzma Qureshi as vice chancellor of the Lahore College for Women University, termed the appointment against the rules.
Inquiry committee’s head Prof Dr Amjad Saqib filed a sealed report to the CJP.
CJ Nisar read the report and observed that it had been established that the appointment of Ms Qureshi was against the rules. He directed Ms Qureshi to file her response to the report by Sunday (today).
Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2018
Comments (43) Closed
Damn 1.3 million rupees per month!!! No wonder these companies can never get things done they are been rotted from within!
That’s what Naya Pakistan should be.
NO! They must be punished.
Pakistan's progress has be halted & stolen away from us due to corruption. Punishments are a must.
Tomorrow Nawaz will also plea to return money and be forgiven. Not fair, they must be punished so no one dares to loot the State ever again.
They would have never return all this money is they were not caught red handed. Punishments are a must!
Money flowing back to government and human development. Bravo
Excellent news that they are ready to return but in addition to that some examplery punishment must be given for the sake of future happenings. Seeing this incident, it can easily be proved that Pakistan is damaged more by its own people than any other enemies.
Great days ahead for Pakistan with Chief justice and Imran Khan the two most honest persons...
Good beginning to NAYA PAKISTAN. CJP Sir, recover all the money from such looters and plunderers at the earliest. The recovered cash would be sufficient for completing the two dams. YES THIS IS THE BEGINNING TO NAYA PAKISTAN. CJP Zindabad, Pakistan Paindabad
apart from recovering money, the people who were involved in giving theses perks must be punished as well
This is LAW and ORDER , rectifying loopholes and bring back use of it in the right direction.. Letting them realize their mistake in appropriate way. KEEP IT UP and let all these departed sheep be mentored to right place
Surely dams are not built by crowd funding, but they surely can be built by such a resolve n commitment
First step to transparency
Recover all money obtained through wrong way and spend for the welfare of the poor people on education, building new hospitals and dams, restructuring NAB, FA and other institutions, and providing clean water and job opportunities to all citizens. Don't let anybody get away, no matter who they are, all looted money must be returned!
This only proves that these CEO have either already looted or they can loot in future if they have to return the salaries.
No person will be ready to forgo his salary if earned lawfully and with ethics.
Better step would have
It is not just a matter of being ready ‘to return’ - an act of graft/ corruption has been committed by these bogus-CEOs as well as the person who signed off on the arrangement.
It is not acceptable that you steal something, but when ‘caught’ you return what you stole [but keep it all if not caught]. There should be s SIGNIFICANT PENALTY for such actions.
“all the civil servants working as heads or officials of the 56 public sector companies in the province were ready to return market-based salaries they had been withdrawing over and above their regular salaries.”
Good going, need to do more.
Anyone convicted of trustworthiness or accused of corruption should also return all thier salaries since they became ministers or any public position.
Monthly salaries in millions of the establishments all running in loses? Simply obscene scavenging of the resources
The best appraisal for all these 346 government servants drawing salary in excess of normal government servants is that their services be offerred to all multi national companies like Nestle,Lever Brothers etc and if any of them is hired by them to the similar salary bracket then they deserve the job, otherwise,it is simply nepotism and the guilties must be punished.
What about more than market salaries within the departments?
Way to go CJP, recover all looted money.
Any chance of the CJP taking notice of similar activities carried on in the other provinces as well during the past ten years? Or is his command covers only Punjab?
What about violation of laws, rules of businesses and above all, the constitution, I don't see any inquiry here, who ordered all this public money mishandling and corrupt practices, must be brought to justice. Why Ex CM Punjab, the administration haven't been arrested yet, I think we are taking this very light, NO, it's bigger than Panama, the CM used Government officials to make money.
CJ is the real hero He can do better job then Imran Khan though Imran look honest as well CJ have more power I believe
Pakistan will never get experts in such a scenario in future.
I am a salaried employee. I am broke by the time I pay off my Bill's. How can these guys return 2 years of salary unless they were making huge sums of money under the table.
Message for CJP. Take salaries back and deposit in the bhasha dam fund.
"Cost" of these "funds" should also be recovered from these CEO's i.e. "Interest costs".
@Wajih Qidwai
Mr. Wajih Qidwai,
Valid point and demand.
@SHAHID SATTAR
Mr. SHAHID SATTAR,
Chief Justice of Pakistan must look at Sindh.
In Sindh is the situation same as in Punjab.
Both, PML-N and PPP are well known corrupt
parties in Pakistan.
These parties are curse on Pakistan and
Pakistanis.
The money returned by officials of safi pain companies should be re-invested in the saf Pani project so that people can benefited with the prioject.
While crooks collecting big salaries because of connections with politicians, poor masses suffering from lack of clean water, lack of electricity, lack of medical and lack of children education. Is that democracy all about?
I request HIss lordship l,The Right honourable CJP to also include the officer reputed in federal organisations and corporations in past and in present as well. Why only Punjab, people had been drawing hefty amount as a chairman of CEO of corporations or organisation.
how did they got these salaries on first place? who authorised it ? thats where the accountability need to begin.. just returning the funds is no solution, they wil restore this channel again.
@Leoman Its not that they have stolen the money. A salary is something which ,one is paid as per the government laid norms according to the recommendations of the pay commission. Its a different matter that the salaries have been abnormally high.
@My Advice Look at what the parliamentarians do. It is mostly increasing their own perks.
Now, Don't expect any one to come and work in Pakistan for government. If there were irregularities investigate them and fix them, but court has stepped out of its jurisdiction.
They are acting Administration. Matter to worry for upcoming Government.
There are thousands of people at leadership levels in companies in US and UK who earn more than the President or the PM. This doesn't mean that they are corrupt or should not be paid that much. The whole question in Pakistan is about whether the right process was followed, is the profile and experience of the person in line with leaders in other commercial MNC and large groups.
The senior executive market is extremely competitive and I think world class salaries have to be paid to leaders who want to work in the country in battered government institutions and help to turn them around.
Yes, if they have been hired unethically / unfairly, then strict action should be taken against the people who broke the law, not just the CEO as the hiring must have been authorised by a few other people.
The loot is even horrendous in Sindh, especially in the education sector.
@ali Money is too dear for NS; all this denying to produce money trails was because for him money is important than self-respect. He will never agree to return even a penny.
It is very normal to have higher salaries for required people in state enterprises to hire top people and this salary easily can be higher than the norm. These kind of populist measure will backfire and will effect for a long time as competent people will lose faith in the system and top people won’t join any government organization. It does not matter whether their salary is higher than CJP or not and those comments were uncalled for.
NS and SS allowed this to happen
@ali I want money back in national exchequer. Period.