KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seems reluctant to initiate an investigation into the massive financial corruption and illegal appointments of hundreds of persons in the Sindh Assembly by the speaker and the officials, it was learnt on Friday.
It is recalled here that the NAB had given go-ahead its investigators to probe into the corruption of funds by Speaker Sindh Assembly Aga Siraj Durrani in Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) last tenure.
However, it is alleged that the Sindh Assembly officials have greased palms of the NAB authorities for delaying the inquiries until the next provincial government is formed.
According to sources, the NAB has approved three inquiries against Sindh Assembly speaker and officials for massive corruption of funds to the provincial exchequer.
The NAB inquiries included accumulation of assets beyond known sources of income by former speaker while the other major allegation is illegal appointments of 352 appointees, while the third allegation pertains to corruption in funds for the construction of MPA Hostel and construction of new Sindh Assembly building.
According to sources, Speaker Siraj Durrani has made lower grade employee and made him Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and empowered him for his alleged illegal activities.
According to sources, Muhammad Haroon, who is currently made OSD BPS-17 was actually appointed as junior clerk (BS-5) in 1989. And again he was reappointed as Chamber Assistant in BPS-11 in 1999.
Again, he was appointed as Reporter BPS-16 on 12.12.2008 and did not work or attend his duty as a reporter. The nomenclature of the post of the reporter was changed as OSD and post upgraded from BPS-16 to BPS-17 in March 2013.
In many cases, sources added that the OSD has overpowered the Secretary Sindh Assembly Ghulam Umar Farooq Buriro for his illegal activities.
When contacted, Secretary Sindh Assembly Ghulam Umar Farooq Buriro told Pakistan Today that no NAB team has either visited the assembly nor speaker is called for statements. However, he refused to further comment on the issue.