LARKANA, April 20: The Sindh National Front-backed nazims and members of the district council have called upon the government to take action against the district nazim of Larkana and start an inquiry for his alleged involvement in corruption of millions of rupees.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, Saeedodero Union Council Nazim Munawwar Ali Abro, Pir Bakhsh Bhutto Union Council Nazim Fayyaz Bhutto and Akil Union Council Nazim Nizakat Ali Agani called for an inquiry against Saifullah Abro for alleged embezzlement of Zakat and Bait-ul-Maal funds.

They criticised the two and a half year performance of the district government and said that all the departments under its purview showned no improvement.

They said that the district nazim was just a figurehead and every department was in disarray.

The law and order situation was in a bad shape while the district nazim who enjoyed full support of the Sindh government had misappropriated funds to the tune of millions of rupees allocated for disabled people, they claimed.

They also alleged that Rs550 million was given to Saifullah Abro under different heads of development schemes in the district from the exchequer but no one knows where the money was spent.

They accused former Sindh minister Altaf Unnar, the district nazim of Larkana, and some officials of misappropriating Rs770 million meant for maintenance and repair work in the district.

They claimed that they had proof of their alleged corruption and said that all the development schemes were carried out only on the papers.

They said that an amount of Rs170 million was drawn and misappropriated in the name of students’ scholarships and dowry funds by keeping the record updated with fake identity cards. They said that under the food support programme numerous identity cards were collected from people but the amount remained undistributed.

They also called for a probe against administrative officer of district nazim who, they alleged, had got illegal promotion and had been posted as assistant district officer of education and had misappropriated school management committee’s funds.

They said that Altaf Unnar was defeated in the 18 February elections due his track record and now he was in police custody.

They said it was not enough to arrest Altaf Unnar and call for detention of his cronies by constituting an inquiry commission to recover the plundered public money from them.

They demanded that the office of district nazim should be sealed off as the record was intentionally torched on Dec 27 to hush up facts.

They said that if the People’s Party-backed members of the district council tabled a no confidence motion in district nazim, they (SNF members) would support the move.