No department is free of corruption and government officials encourage politicians for corruption. This was said by Speaker Balochistan Muhammad Aslam Bhootani, while addressing a seminar 'Combating Corruption' organised by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Balochistan in connection with International Anti-Corruption Day here on Thursday.
Bhootani said that no department seemed to be free of corruption, which was very unfortunate. "It's not restricted to government sector only rather it has crept into the grassroots level of our nation." He accused government officials of encouraging politicians for corruption.
"During my service in Anti-Narcotics Force, Federal Investigation Agency and police, I observed officials telling ministers ways of misappropriation and bungling," he said. He added that if an official was removed from his or her post for refusing to obey illegal directives of a minister, then 10 other officials were ready to cooperate with him.
He said that the officials responsible for corruption should face trial and be given exemplary punishments to curb this menace. He said," to safeguard our future, all had to work together to eliminate corruption from society. We have to promote merit, strengthen the departments, sideline corrupt elements and develop a strong political will". Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani opined that lack of accountability, meagre salaries, monopoly of power, lack of transparency, power of influentials and shortage of demand and supply were major causes of the corruption.
He said corruption was committed in departments dealing with land transactions, tax and criminal activities. He said people had lost their trust in institutions due to sense of insecurity due to terrorism, extremism and no-provision of basic rights. He said that black money was also promoting culture of corruption in the society. He said both public and private sectors were not free of the menace. Dr Sobia Ramazan representative of civil society emphasised the need to activate youth associations and representatives of students to raise awareness against corruption. She lamented that no corruption was discussed in curriculum at school, college and even university level.
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