Although, there is an apparent democratic government of PPP in Sindh province and in the Centre at large, the vicious practice of bribe on demand by the high officials of Sindh Education Department for attestation of academic certificates of the aspirant for studying abroad is still on the rise, it is learnt on Saturday.
In the name of attestation fee of academic certificates, the section officer of Sindh Education Department Abdul Azeem who is the sole authorised official for the job, brazenly found demanding minimum Rs 200 per attestation, a brief visit to department revealed.
The inside sources revealed about the alleged involvement of politically elected public representatives in the corruption who also have a sizeable chunk in the collection, which makes the corrupt officials in the hierarchy fearless of any action from the government.
A long queue of worried students were observed outside the section officer office waiting for quite a while to get their certificates attested, undergoing an agony from dawn to dusk despite the change of faces of so-called democrats ostensibly advocating equal opportunities and corruption free environment for all.
The frustrated students complained that they have been coming to get their documents attested for several days, yet there ordeal is not going to end. "When we came first time here for accomplishing our primary job the peon seated outside the officer's room insultingly ask us what are you people doing here and then ask us for Rs 200 per attestation as each of us had about 10 documents. But so far the officers even being paid the bribe has not done the job."
There is also doubts whether the attestation is genuine as one of the students who succeeded to get his job done said that the peon did not let him go himself inside rather took his documents and brought them back within minutes stamped and a signed by the section officer. "He (peon) relentlessly snatched a thousand rupee currency note from hands and demanded for more five hundreds," he said.
The peon found insistent that this was the fee of attestation not bribe, but could not give a receipt to the client, clearly showing that there is no check of the PPP led Sindh government on the affairs of its most important departments.