Misappropriation of funds by district nazims: Sindh government to approach NAB for investigation

The Sindh government has decided to approach the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds worth millions of rupees by district governments, it is learnt. According to sources, this was decided in a recent meeting held with Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro in the chair. It was attended by officials of Law and Local Government Departments.
After the meeting, they said, the Local Government Department forwarded a letter to the Law Department requesting it to urge the NAB to conduct probe into the misappropriation of millions of rupees by district governments, misuse of authority by the district nazims, etc. They said that the tenure of local bodies expired on January 1, 2009 and it is now the responsibility of the Sindh government to properly investigate utilisation of millions of rupees funds by the district representatives.
The Sindh Local Government Commission (SLGC) has received hundreds of complaints against the nazims of different districts for transgressing rules and regulations of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2002, their alleged involvement in land grabbing, misappropriation of public funds, misuse of power, carrying out development work on the basis of liking and disliking and many more, they added.
The Commission has investigated the complaints and recommended that they should be forwarded to the accountability court (NAB) to thoroughly probe into the complaints and take stern actions against those involved, they said, adding that members of the ruling party of Sindh government were insisting that proper action be taken against nazims.
Besides, the officials of the planning and development department would be asked to properly check the quality of work of the development carried out by the CDGK and other district governments during their tenure, they said. Sources said that mostly the complaints were against the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), district governments of Thatta, Badin, Sukkur, Ghotki, Shikarpur, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Dadu and Tharparkar for misappropriation of funds, inflicting huge financial losses to the national exchequer.