Majority of the roads of Karachi have extremely damaged in recent rains which have exposed their substandard construction and the government should investigate into this matter and fix responsibility to the corrupt officials and contractors who caused this loss of billions of rupees to the taxpayers money, says Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.

He said though the nexus of government officers and private contractors, looting of the public money was active in whole Pakistan but in Sindh, it had already crossed all limits.

The PDP chief said government officers from top to bottom were involved in corruption in government contracts, especially of road and street construction.

He said a bunch of blue-eyed contractors always got lucrative contracts and if a proper investigation was carried out, political affiliation of those contractors could easily be established.

Mr Shakoor said it was alleged that not only the officers but the ministers of the concerned departments also got their share from that corruption and kickbacks money.

He said in some departments, the rate of commission in government contracts was almost 50%, adding after paying this commission and kickbacks money the contractors were allowed to use substandard material in contracted projects.

He said in recent rains, some portions of Main University Road and Jahangir Road were washed away that were reconstituted or repaired just a few months ago. He said Lahore had also received heavy rains but the roads and streets of the city were not as affected as the roads and streets of Karachi. “This is because the political corruption level in Punjab is much lesser than in Sindh,” he stated.

Shakoor said shoddy construction of roads was the wastage of public money which was a direct violation of human rights and the Supreme Court could rightly take suo moto notice of it. He said civil society could also file a constitutional petition against shoddy construction of roads in Karachi in the Sindh High Court to stop this wastage of taxpayer money and ensure that the corrupt contractors and their brackets and patrons in the Sindh government are sent to jail.

He demanded of the Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah to personally supervise a deep probe against the destruction of roads and streets in Karachi during the recent rains and take action against the black sheep who were tarnishing the image of the ruling PPP and its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

The PDP chiefsuggested that construction of roads and streets should be given to the civil engineering departments of the engineering universities and colleges of Sindh so as to ensure construction quality on one hand and give practical training to engineering students on the other.