MUZAFFARGARH: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) registered a case against former state minister for housing and works Dr Shabbir Ali Qureshi on charges of taking commission in development schemes of the public works department.

Dr Qureshi, the son of ex-MNA Mian Mohsin Qureshi, had won the election in NA-181 as an independent candidate and later joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

According to the first information report (FIR), the case was registered in the ACE Muzaffargarh and the ACE teams raided Qureshi’s house but he was not home.

According to details, Qureshi released heavy amounts from the public works department in his schemes to the contractors and received commission from them.

He was involved in approval of 21 schemes with an amount of Rs1.9bn in November 2021and allotted contracts to his favourite contractors against commission.

He launched projects on the property of the district council where the council had already completed its projects.

The works department EXEN and other officials were also involved in the scam. The projects at Khirkiwala to Qasim Chowk and imambargah etc had been completed through the district council while he duplicated and showed the works completed by the public works department.

In the annual development budget schemes of 2022/23, Mr Qureshi allegedly received a project of the Mother Child Hospital worth Rs855m in Kot Addu and awarded the contract to his own contractor who used substandard material while similar was the case of the Rural Health Centre, Dera Din Pannah.

Sources said the public works department said an EXEN had also been involved in this corruption but the ACE was not taking action against him.

A family member of Qureshi told this correspondent that the former minister was still in the PTI and had not decided to leave the party.

Published in Dawn, August 23th, 2023