PESHAWAR: Music Welfare Society (MWS), a non-governmental organisation working for the rights and welfare of artists, has demanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak and Chief Secretary Azam Khan to take notice of mega corruption in the recently held ‘Hunar Mela’ by tourism department, and expose the culprits involved in the mega scam.
While talking to media here at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, the society president Zahir Shah alleged that the authorities concerned of KP tourism department illegally awarded a contract worth millions of rupees to a firm, which was not even registered, on bogus documents. This, he said, was a joke cracked on artists.
Flanked by artists Waheed Achakzai and Rashid Khan, Shah alleged that no merit was followed in the awarding of contracts which were rather bestowed to the blue-eyed ones. He added that culture department deputy director Shahbaz Khan initiated an inquiry into the irregularities of millions of rupees held in Hunar Mela, but the report of the enquiry was not disclosed by sports secretary and tourism department due to unknown reasons.
He also lamented that though the provincial government assured to bring the inquiry report in the front, despite a lapse of three months, the report about mega corruption was not made public. It spread a sense of anxiety among artists, he added.
They demanded that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) led KP government, chief secretary and the authorities concerned of tourism department expose the corrupt officials involved in the scam by making enquiry report public, adding that action should be taken against the firm on given recommendations.
They also threatened to hold a protest sit-in in front of Peshawar Press Club if the government failed to take action in this regard.