LARKANA: Seven days allocated for preparing a report on the alleged issuance of domiciles to non-residents of the district/province is quite short as within the stipulated period, the committee can only compile some preliminary information.

This was stated by Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, Board of Revenue senior member and head of the three-member committee constituted to probe the allegations of issuing domiciles to non-residents. The Sindh chief secretary formed the body after social media flashed many complaints and tasked it to investigate the matter and give recommendations for legal action.

Talking to reporters after visiting the domicile branch on the second day of the investigation on Friday, he said that under the limited time, the committee would visit Kashmore, Jamshoro, Sanghar, Naushahro Feroz and one district of Karachi to undertake the similar exercise.

He said: “We will focus on the districts from where the committee has received many complaints.” The committee was following the parameters it had already set to carry on the task, he added.

Regarding recommendations, he said it [the committee] after thorough scrutiny of the suspected domiciles would suggest cancellation if proved fake. It should be the authority of the deputy commissioner concerned to do it, but he should keep the committee informed about the decision. Another proposal would be to cancel the admissions of the beneficiaries to the institutions concerned or their removal from jobs from different departments, he said.

Third recommendation would be to initiate departmental action against the officer concerned and staff involved in the issuance of the bogus domicile, he said. The fourth one would be to fully address the lacunas present in the existing system to stop issuance of fake domiciles, Mr Qazi said.

The committee would also submit recommendations regarding the issuance of fake certificates by different departments in case it would have sufficient evidence about it, he added.

He said they had so far found 41 domiciles ‘suspected’ after an extensive scrutiny of 1,512, but they could not be labelled at this stage cleared without ground verification.

Civil society activists on Friday provided a list of 60 allegedly fake domiciles to be checked by the committee, he said.

He said the Larkana commissioner was asked to form a team of good officers to do ground verification of the papers of 101 domiciles in line with the parameters already set by the probe body and submit a report. Mr Qazi also chaired a meeting at the DC office with the staffers and other officials prior to listening to the complaints.

The committee members remained busy doing the probe while a group of social activists and members of certain political parties demonstrated outside the venue. They kept on raising slogans to cancel the bogus domiciles and initiate action against those responsible.

Later, some of them called on the committee head and shared “evidence” they had regarding the suspected fake domiciles.

Workers of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz in the lead of Athar Soomro, Aziz Shaikh and others demonstrated outside the local press club and chanted slogans against the issuance of domiciles to the non-residents in the district. They alleged that their genuine right to employment and education was snatched by “outsiders” on the basis of fake domiciles.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2020