Many mysterious things have happened along the way while the Sindh Government orchestrated its determination to cashier the corrupt officials from public offices.
The intensity of nepotism and corruption in the society can be gauge by the remarks of President Pervez Musharraf that during the last decade around Rs 1,100 billion was squandered without any measurable change for the better in people's daily life and sounded a note of caution that corruption, if not nipped, could gravely impact the country's development.
The National Accountability Bureau and Anti-Corruption Establishment are there, but the corruption mafia is continuously flourishing in almost all nation-building departments of the province, which poses a question as to who would ensure honesty and accountability?
Social reformers are of the opinion that political instability in the province had provided leverage to corruption mafia to exploit the situation through their patrons--the feudal politicians--while others attributed it to officials and patrons inside and outside the power corridor who spin their web with exotic ideas to confound bodies like NAB and AEC.
It is difficult to collect evidence against the white-collar crime mafia and more difficult to prove it in a court of law, but at the same time it is also difficult for criminals to hide their illegally earned money, which they generally spend in building their assets under the name of their relatives what they can not hide is their life style.
They are living beyond means of their legitimate earnings for which there is a law in-built in Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1966, which has never been invoked to bring them to book.
The media have time and again pointed out incidents of corruption in detail, but the clippings of news, often sent to the very departments which had been involved and where these news clippings are processed, are later shelved into cold storage.
It would not be out of place to quote instances of corruption available dime a dozen--awarding of government wheat transport contracts.
Contract was awarded to transport contractor--who claimed to be leader of contractors' cartel and was often seen moving in power corridors--to transport 350,000 bags of 100 kg wheat from Naushero Feroze to Hyderabad at the rate of Rs 54.10 per bag, whereas the transport charges for Karachi were Rs 54.60 per bag.
The contractor transported the wheat through private transport owners at the rate of Rs 20 to 24 per bag, which was confirmed by the private transport owners of the area and Khairpur. Why this wheat was transported to Hyderabad and why not to Karachi where it was needed most. The transport contractor earned a profit of around Rs 8 to 10 million. But who cares?
The Chief Minister publicly announced the corruption of the irrigation department and of their assets, which include palatial residences in DHA and other posh areas. But it seems that he pointed out the corruption for public consumption during election.
The provincial Irrigation Minister told media folk that he had referred the cases of financial malpractice of his department to NAB while the question remains to be answer as to where all the money has gone allocated for desilting of canals for years together?
Leaders of farming community confirm that no canal or watercourse had been desilted all these years, with the result that the water flowing capacity of canals and water-courses had reduced manifold, causing severe water shortage at tail-ends.
Much has been said about the development of 'elementary education', but the provincial ministry failed to take any cognisance of ghost schools and ghost teachers. A former education minister, while visiting local Press Club said that there were large number of government teachers working as journalists in rural areas and their seniors have no courage to complain against them, for obvious reasons.
Two officers of local government commission audit team were arrested by police while accepting illegal gratification from EDO Education Badin at a local hotel while auditors auditing accounts of other departments were not immune to similar practices. Some of the heads of middle and higher secondary schools instead of fulfilling their obligation towards education were found engaged in more profitable errands such as running uniform and bookshops, and computer classes by acquiring services of non-qualified teachers at a meagre salary, forcing students to join their private coaching centres if they wanted desired results in annual examination.
Why the provincial education minister, a lady herself, is not conducting surprise raids or why she has not ordered a survey of the entire education institutions in the province before evolving a strategy to achieve desired results?
Police personnel are involved in trafficking of women and children in upper Sindh. This is yet another story of moral degradation. The cost to seek justice is maintaining high profile showing growing public disenchantment. Either these matter are overlooked by those who matter or they have turned a blind eye for material or political gains is anybody's guess.
Scholars of social science commenting on the situation said that the bureaucracy and politicians were equally responsible for corruption mafia to prosper. Politicians never hesitate to enhance heir political leverage, no matter if it is at the cost of human misery.
It was high time that the government introduced law of transparency to ensure that corruption left in the past should not fester. A team of experts should be deployed to confront the challenge to induce sanity in the society. Action is needed against those who are living beyond their means of legitimate earnings to put them on the carpet.