SUKKUR: A team of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Thursday conducted raid on the regional office of the Sindh Small Industries Corporation (SSIC) and sealed the office after taking into custody three years record on sale of industrial plots.

The action led by DSP Abdul Haq Qureshi was taken in the wake of growing complaints that the regional director and members of the corporation were involved in fraudulent sale of industrial plots over the past three years.

Sindh government had reserved a large tract of land for the extension of industrial area but representatives of the corporation sold it away with the help of officials concerned and earned million of rupees, said sources.

Leaders of business community and industrialists had complained to the authorities that the representative of the industry’s union had issued fake allotment letters at cheap rates to the persons who were neither industrialists nor businessmen and they in turn sold the plots after six months or a year at high prices and thus the parties involved earned millions of rupees with the help of officials of the regional office including the regional director, said the sources.

The sources said that during the raid, harsh words were exchanged between members of the Sukkur Chamber of Commerce and Industry and representatives of the corporation, who accused each other of corruption.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2022