Tag: Corruption

ISLAMABAD - State Minister for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar on Thursday said there were still reports of corruption in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) despite the government's efforts to eradicate it.
"The civil society is equally responsible for corruption in the FBR as such businessmen are not willing to pay taxes and they are paying bribes to the FBR people. However, there is improvement in the FBR but it could be improved further," Hina said while responding to various

ISLAMABAD - Former Science and Technology minister Azam Khan Swati on Tuesday said that he would present more evidence before the court on January 6, 2011 pertaining to alleged corruption in the Hajj operations.
Talking to journalists, Swati said he was sacked for raising his voice against corruption. "For me, this is a matter of honour," he said, adding that those behind the corruption have been exposed. He hoped that the justice system would act against corrupt.

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the National Assembly on Monday that there was an alleged corruption of over Rs 36 million (1.6 million riyals) in Haj arrangements this year.
He was responding to opposition's complains that the government was not apprising the House about the details of the Haj scam.
Malik told the House that on the directives of the Interior Ministry, several accused, including former Haj DG Rao Shakeel, had been arrested and investigations

PRAGUE: Czech Environment Minister Pavel Drobil resigned on Wednesday following allegations that he tried to cover up corruption in his department.
His resignation came as parliament debated the 2011 budget and Prime Minister Petr Necas said he had asked Drobil to stay on for the final vote expected later in the day. Drobil is the first casualty for the centre-right coalition which took power in July after winning an election on promises to narrow the budget deficit and fight

ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the Standing Committee of Senate on Communications on Monday witnessed great commotion when members of the parliamentary body termed the National Highway Authority (NHA) a den of corruption and its chairman as one of the most corrupt government officials.
"There was a time when NHA had credibility but it has become a den of corruption since Chaurdhry Altaf assumed the charge as chairman," Senator Humayoun Khan said, adding, "The incumbent chairman of NHA

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday warned Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Waseem Ahmed for adopting a lenient approach while probing into alleged corruption and mishandling of Haj affairs, calling his conduct "disappointing".
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry expressed surprise over the DG's decision to entrust the investigations to a grade 16 officer. "This is a high profile case involving prestige of the country, but an FIA inspector has been

LAHORE: Provincial and federal government departments observed International Anti-Corruption Day on Thursday and organised different events like walks, seminars and exhibitions on different platforms to create awareness against corruption among the general public.
Ob these occasions, government departments like Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Anti-Corruption Establishment also issued their performance reports till Thursday. FIA

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi on Monday told the Supreme Court there was corruption in Haj arrangements, however, "this year, corruption was lesser than the previous years".
A six-member special SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a suo motu case against the irregularities and corruption in Haj arrangements.
The court directed the Religious Affairs Ministry to pay back 700 Saudi Riyals

KARACHI: The United States has urged Pakistani leaders to combat corruption and red tape which was discouraging Foreign Direct Investment. It was also hampering economic growth and private sector development in the crises-hit country.
In addition, Washington snubbed local federal and provincial governments for lacking respect for 'budget discipline' that resulted in excessive borrowing from the central and private sector banks. The US was also critical of Islamabad's lukewarm

LAHORE: The Punjab government is planning to conduct a large-scale investigation into charges of corruption, nepotism, abuse of power and financial mismanagement in the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Pakistan Today has learnt.
The LDA has come under fire after surfacing of tendering scandals, faulty commercialisation policy, manipulation in 100 plots for LDA employees, silence over action against illegal housing schemes, missing files regarding high-rising buildings,

ISLAMABAD: Senators from across the political divide on Thursday vowed not to fuel the "corruption furnace" of a non-performing government with the taxpayers' money, asking Islamabad to first put its own house in order before taxing the poverty-stricken people.
Taking part in the debate on the General Sales Tax (GST) Bill, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Senator SM Zafar said tales of the corrupt practices of rulers were being told across the globe.
"Why should the

ISLAMABAD: As Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh on Tuesday told Senate that there was no other option but to implement the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the General Sales Tax (GST), the senators lambasted the government for not controlling corruption in its ranks and taxing the poor instead.
Rejecting the finance minister's sugar-quoted arguments in favour of the GST, the senators termed the new tax 'suicidal' for the already over-burdened people and asked

ISLAMABAD: The 2009-10 audit report of Pakistan Railways clearly indicates that the present day severe financial crunch of the organisation was due to persistent pilferage, misappropriation of funds and habitual apathy of railways' high-ups to check wastage of public money.
Pakistan Railways (PR) is facing a financial deficit of around Rs 40 billion and has so far closed down thirteen passenger trains to address fiscal constraints, but the Auditor-General of Pakistan's 217-page

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines' special flight operations for pilgrims returning after haj began on Sunday, albeit after a three-hour delay. The first returning haj flight arrived in Peshawar three hours behind schedule, with families of the pilgrims waiting in agony at the airport.
Religious Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday with important documents and proofs regarding irregularities in haj operations. Kazmi will present a detailed report

LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has cancelled the tenders of various development projects worth Rs 100 million awarded to private firms after reports of massive corruption and receiving kickbacks in the pre-qualification process and other procedural requirements laid down in the LDA Act surfaced, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The decision was taken after the CM Secretariat took notice of the violations in the tendering criterion.
CM Secretariat officials told

KARACHI: The business and industrialist community of Karachi have condemned the implementation of reformed GST as they believe that it would cause corruption, hamper exports and would lead to massive price hikes.
They viewed that all sectors including manufacturing, distributing and retailers would be affected and demanded solid guarantees from the government. In addition, they blamed the government of excessive spending and advised government to cut down its expenses.
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KARACHI: The Ministry of Interior has launched a grassroots-level crackdown on corruption in all government departments, Pakistan Today learnt on Thursday.
As an initial step in this direction, the county's intelligence agencies, on the directives of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, have started investigations against corrupt officials in over a dozen government departments.
The public departments identified by the Interior Ministry for an inquiry include the Federal Board of