HYDERABAD: National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Karachi director general Mohammad Altaf Bawany held a third public hearing at the circuit house here on Friday and received around 50 complaints of alleged corruption.

According to a NAB press release, people from Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts, as well as their adjoining districts, submitted complaints against corruption and other malpractices in various departments.

Issuing orders for immediate initiation of investigation into those complaints which fell within the bureau’s domain, he referred the others to relevant authorities for necessary action.

The complaints ranged from illegal construction at cooperative housing society projects, unlawful change of water courses and illegal recruitment in various government departments to inflated billing on the part of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) and corruption in municipalities.

The Hyderabad commissioner also attended the hearing and assured his full cooperation to the bureau in addressing genuine issues.

Sindh forest department superintendent, Abdul Ghani Kandhro, who also holds the additional charge of budget and account officer, speaking to Dawn said he submitted his complaint to the NAB director general against the forest secretary and two officers of its Karachi secretariat.

He alleged that he was being forced to spare 15 per cent of the department’s quarterly budget for them. He claimed that he was being harassed for resisting such corrupt practices.

A non-governmental organisation complaint to the NAB that about 16,000 acres of green forests in Khipro (Sanghar district) and Khebrani (Matiari district) had been destroyed during 2010 and 2011 to execute a forest department scheme. It said the NAB had initiated an inquiry into the matter some six years ago but without any progress.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2018