KARACHI:Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday expressed annoyance over the absence of a petitioner and her counsel in the hearing of a petition regarding corrupt practices in the construction of new Sindh Assembly and MPA Hostel.
The SHC Chief Justice, Ahmed Ali M Shaikh heard the petition which was filed by Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan(MQM-P) leader Afshan Mansoor for conduction of an enquiry into the alleged wrongdoings in the construction of these projects.
The Chief Justice remarked: “Everybody is busy washing hands in running Ganga, nobody cares anything here.” We are aware of everything, both Sindh government and petitioner are upset.”
Despite the court orders, the Sindh government failed to submit the employment record of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and other departments.
On previous hearing, the court had directed the Sindh government to submit the record of 17 years pertaining the appointments in various departments. However, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KSWB) submitted the record of 6626 employers.
The court, instead of conducting inquiry against the departments of provincial government, had sought details of city government’s departments.
On which, the petitioner had pleaded to withdraw her petition by changing her counsel in the petition. The applicant submitted the plea that as per PC-I, the estimates for MPA Hostel construction was Rs 2.7 billion which was increased to Rs 11.40 billion.
The applicant had said that as per June 20, 2017, an amount of Rs6.72 billion was released from the provincial exchequer despite completion of less than 50 percent work at the site.
She had said that Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani was supervising the construction work and alleged that he had given the task for its completion to one of his blue-eyed official.
The petitioner had also said that accountant general, provincial finance department and some other officials were involved in this scam and had also transferred an anti-corruption officer probing this issue.
Afshan Mansoor had said that out of turn promotions and illegal recruitments were carried out in the provincial assembly, but no one is paying heed to it. She had requested the court to probe into the matter as soon as possible and also direct Sindh accountant general to halt more payments for the project. The court summoned the petitioner in personal capacity on 22 February and adjourned the hearing.