The Sindh government on Wednesday ordered at least 15 FIRs against more than 60 government officials for their involvement in appointing ‘ghost’ employees and embezzlement of billions of rupees.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Anti-Corruption and Establishment Committee chaired by Sindh Chief Secretary Sadiq Memon.
This was the committee’s first meeting in the last two years, and was attended by several members, including the secretary local government, secretary education, secretary health and chairman.
According to the decision, cases would be registered against senior officials of education, health and local government departments. District health officers, medical superintendents, district education officers, directors and town municipal administrators working in Grade 17 to 20 will also face the music.
Anti-Corruption Chairman Mumtaz Ali Shah said the committee had given approval to register three cases against officials of health, five for education and seven cases against local government department officials.
“Around 125 high profile cases of various departments were on the agenda, but we could only put up 58 cases today. The fate of other cases will be decided in next meeting that will he held on August 24,” he said, adding that apart from registration of FIRs, open inquires will be conducted in other cases.
Giving details about cases in the health department, officials said then District Health Officer (DHO) Hyderabad Dr Ghulam Ghous was facing charges for appointing 304 employees in his department against the rules, and some of them are ‘ghost’ employees.
Registration of two other FIRs have been ordered against former and sitting medical superintendents of Civil Hospital Hyderabad, i.e. Khalid Qureshi and Rafiul Hassan who have embezzled funds worth millions of rupees.
Citing an example from the education department, officials said former regional director colleges, Sukkur Altaf Hussain Abbasi was the driving force behind appointment of ‘ghost’ teachers and embezzling funds.
