Karachi: In a press conference on Friday, Minister for Cooperation Jam Ikramullah Khan Dharejo highlighted steps taken by the department for public welfare in the province. “We are also trying to complete the construction of a Cooperative College in Hyderabad so that officials and the managing committee of the cooperative societies could get requisite training over there, he said. “We have made extraordinary efforts to return the societies back to elected managing committees. Prior to this, the practice was to supersede societies and appoint private persons as administrators. This created a lot of problems within the societies. We have put an end to this practice. There were more than 50 administrators only in Karachi, most of whom have been removed and societies handed over to managing committees. Now only 10 to 12 administrators are working and very soon the election will be held in these societies.” The statement said that an awareness campaign through media would soon be started for the general public to expose those fleecing people in the name of cooperatives. It said that work was underway to streamline affairs of all cooperative societies through an annual audit. “We have started the process of a forensic audit, and during the course of this audit all the discrepancies committed by the societies will be brought to the limelight and action will be taken against the culprits accordingly. We invited all cooperative societies of Sindh to congregate in Karachi to discuss issues in the audit. The whole process went on for six days,” it said. More than 15 cases of cooperative societies have been forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Establishment for action over irregularities and misappropriations. The statement said that the department was facing around 300 court cases. “In order to reduce the number of these cases, we have submitted a number of urgent applications to dispose of these cases and to conduct elections and complete inquiries in the larger interest of the department and members of the societies. “Computerisation of record of housing societies has been initiated and in this regard a plan has been prepared to computerise record of all cooperative societies to avoid double or triple allotments and to reduce the number of litigations and complaints.” The statement further said that as the Cooperative Societies Act of 1925 and its rules of 1927 are outdated now, therefore, the department had started the process of amending the act and rules to be better able to regulate the working and affairs of cooperative societies. “We are glad that the Honourable High Court and Supreme Court of Pakistan have upheld amendments in Section-4aa of Cooperative Societies Rules, 1927 which will help us to stream line the working and affairs of Cooperative Societies.” Published in Daily Times, February 17th 2018.