LAHORE: Despite announcing that the corruption allegation against her trustworthy cabinet member, Punjab Minister for Mines and Minerals Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, will be probed by a five-member committee, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has yet to notify the body for the purpose.

A video of Mr Gorchani had gone viral a couple of days ago in which he is apparently assuring a contractor by phone that he would manage to manipulate the bidding process to secure the contract of a project for him.

During the conversation, Mr Gorchani can also be heard addressing the contractor as “sir” multiple times, and assuring the contractor that he would remove every hurdle in the official process after reaching Lahore in a day or two.

CM Maryam, taking notice of the video, announced forming a five-member committee led by Punjab Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman to thoroughly investigate the matter and submit a report to her.

“My government has a zero tolerance against corruption. Be it a minister or any other official of the government, corruption will not be to tolerated,” she had said in a statement.

Since assuming the office, the chief minister has declared corruption her “red line” on many occasions. However, on ground no probe committee has been formed as yet.

“The government has not yet notified any committee to probe corruption allegations against Mr Gorchani,” an official of the Punjab government told Dawn on Friday.

He said since Mr Gorchani was very close to the Sharifs, any palpable action against him was unlikely.

“Instead of probing the matter, the elements in the Punjab government are trying to hush it up. On the other hand, Mr Gorchani is using his good office to identify the person who filmed him while talking to the contractor and uploaded the conversation on social media,” he said.

Maryam has some 20 members in her cabinet, whom she reportedly selected in consultation with her father, former premier Nawaz Sharif.

Mr Gorchani from Rajanpur had also served as deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly from 2013 to 2018, because of being close to then chief minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Although the chief minister had also ordered issuance of a show-cause notice to Mr Gorchani, to explain his position with regard to the corruption allegation, no such notice has so far been served to the minister.

When contacted, Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman told Dawn on Friday that he was not informed about any committee he was to head to investigate allegations against Mr Gorchani.

“No such committee has been notified by the government as yet,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024