—NAB harassment causes poor spending of uplift budget
—Murad says anti-corruption body chairman to be appointed by provincial assembly
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that after repealing the NAB law [the Sindh jurisdiction] the provincial government is going to restructure and strengthen the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) through legislation, under which, the provincial assembly, treasury members and the opposition, would be empowered to appoint its chairman.
He said this while responding to the questions of the participants of the post-budget conference organised by a media group at a local hotel on Wednesday. He was accompanied by Information Minister Syed Nasir Shah and senior bureaucrats of the provincial government.
He said that the NAB was created by a dictator [Gen Musharraf] and he had given it a constitutional cover by including it into the 6th Schedule to avoid amendments. “Under 18th Constitutional Amendment, the 6th schedule was omitted, therefore the NAB law could be amended,” he said, adding, “Since the anti-corruption is the provincial subject, therefore the Sindh government, using its constitutional right, has repealed the NAB law [Sindh Section] and is going to enact for creation of an autonomous anti-corruption body to serve as an overseer on public spending in the province.
Questioning the performance of NAB, the chief minister said that they [NAB] had arrested a chief engineer and a superintendent engineer of the Irrigation Department for lining canals and had put them in Sukkur Jail for three months. The judge who granted them bail had written in his judgement that the irrigation officers were arrested under diabolical intentions.
“Sukkur NAB director general has occupied a bungalow of the Irrigation department at Barrage Colony and later he got it allotted through force. Through a scheme of the department, he spent Rs45million of the provincial government on its repair and renovation,” he said, adding that two more bungalows of the department at the Barrage Colony, one by the NAB assistant director and another by a NAB judge, have been occupied and got them allotted forcibly. They have also got their bungalow renovation for Rs1.5 million. “This is what they are doing with Sindh,” he said.
The chief minister also said that the harassment of Sindh government officers by NAB is one of the factors behind less utilisation of development funds in Sindh.
Giving constitutional history, Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the entire constitutional structure of the country is based on Indian Act of 1935. In the constitution of 1956, measures to combat corruption were placed in the concurrent list, while in the constitution of 1973 it had been made a provincial subject. In Article 248 it has been clearly said that no minister is responsible to any court of law in exercise of his powers.
The chief minister said that under the NAB law, in violation of the constitution, the federal and the provincial cabinet members and the parliamentarian, like civil servants, have been declared as public office holders. This was done by General Musharraf with the intention to harass the politicians and parliamentarians.
He deplored that the Sindh governor has linked repealing of the NAB law as an attempt to separate Sindh from the federation. “I am quite surprised on his views. He has constitutional role and he should limit himself within those limits, instead of indulging issuing irresponsible political statements,” he said. He questioned why he did not raise his voice or same question when the chief minister of Punjab had warned the NAB authorities for crossing their limits.
BUDGET 2017-18: Earlier, the chief minister discussing the budget 2017-18 said that it is over Rs1 trillion which is something to be pride of. “The provincial government has two sources for making budget- the federal transfer from divisible pool and the provincial resources,” he said.
He said that the development budget of the province has been approved at Rs344 billion, which include Rs244 billion provincial ADP and Rs30 billion district ADP.
“I have given special focus to the development of the province and personally monitoring uplift works,” he said and added that the recent heavy rains developed some cracks in the roads constructed in the city are being fixed again by the same contractor fort which funds would not be paid.
Talking about education sector, he said that it has been given top priority by giving Rs202.2 billion budget with 24 per cent growth. The health sector has also been given Rs100.32 billion budget which is 25.2 per cent more budget than the last year. “We have also given special grants to leading hospitals, like JPMC for cancer wards, NICVD, SUIT and others,” he said.
Law and Order has been allocated Rs90.586 billion, 10 per cent more than the last year, he said.
