Daily Times

With the native officers manning the administration at all levels since the past one decade, the sorrows and agonies of the people of Sindh have leapfrogged because of a nexus between the dishonest political leadership and weak administrative machinery deliberately filled with corrupt, vulnerable and spineless officers. At every step, we come across stunning instances of this malevolent and shameless partnership.

We witnessed the 12-year dismal performance of the local governments. The elected local government leadership and Town officers were lorded over by the Cabinet Ministers and the party MNAs and MPAs. These institutions remained over staffed and short of powers and funds to carry out their mandates. The funds were embezzled freely. Because of financial mismanagement and leakage, almost all the local governments failed to bring a modicum of improvement in their respective cities and towns.

The PPP administration also has failed to work out a Provincial Finance Commission as required under the 18th Amendment devolving financial powers to local governments. Thus, the cities and towns of the province reflect a dismal picture of neglect and inefficiency with overflowing drains, broken streets and roads, stinking pools of sewerage water, and supply of contaminated water highly injurious to public health.

The divisional and district administrations throughout the province have been turned into a dysfunctional pool of corrupt and inefficient functionaries. Had the government followed the directives of the Sindh High Court and Supreme Court, the situation would not have been so dismal. The superior courts in different cases have issued clear directives against the posting to senior positions of officers in personal pay and grade, and those who failed to clear the mandatory Assistant Collector examinations, or the ones guilty of plea bargain with the NAB or voluntary return of the corruption money.

The unbridled greed for acquisition of wealth has blinded rulers and officers to the agony of the people. The province cannot afford this blatant misrule

Regretfully, during the PPP’s decade-long rule, most of the districts and local government institutions of the province were manned by such officers. With their obvious vulnerability, these officers were more pliable to the manipulation by their political bosses. Recently, the provincial Chief Secretary presented a list of such officers in the Sindh High Court containing over 500 names of those who had plea bargain with the NAB or indulged in voluntary return, and were re-employed to lucrative posts in clear disregard rather arrogant defiance of the directives of the Superior Courts.

The scourge of corruption has spread its tentacles from top to the bottom in almost all the departments. The revenue record of private and state lands is not safe from bogus mutation; recruitments to posts in all categories and fake domiciles are open to bidders; embezzlement of funds for development, and pension and salary is endemic. The arrest of a horde of Revenue officers for the fraudulent mutation of the record of lands, the stunning revelations of the Shahid Pervez Qazi Committee regarding bogus domiciles and the recent hair-splitting scandal of the embezzlement of billions in pension funds are the talk of the day.

The Shahid Committee had detected over 100 fake domiciles issued from Larkana only. The Committee was supposed to carry out inspection of the record in all the districts of the province. The Committee abruptly discontinued its working tours and went out of sight. The inspection of record in all the districts of Sindh would have revealed the enormity of the loss inflicted on the people of Sindh by our corrupt officials. The provincial administration is hesitant to proceed against these anti-people and anti-Sindh officials because of political protection they enjoy.

This serious issue, while reflecting on the depth of the greed our officials have sunk in, has been playing havoc with the future of our young generation. We cannot think of obtaining a bogus domicile from any other province where the officers are so over protective of the rights of their people. What an utter shame should it be for our native Officers! They plunder their land and play with the future of their young generation without the slightest twitch of conscience. This sensitive issue would explode into the face of the ruling clique sooner or later.

Sindh is the only province where wheat worth billions is devoured by rodents. When corrupt officials and flour mill owners are taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau, they cough up billions in plea bargain. This was tauntingly mentioned by the Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau recently. A fairly good number of officials from the Food Department have been arrested. When the provincial government is generous enough to re-appoint these officers to lucrative positions after plea bargain or voluntary return of their loot, what fear of the accountability would remain there to deter recrudescence of the broad daylight plunder in the province.

Interestingly, the provincial government has been complaining shortage of wheat flour in lower Sindh. The Commissioner Sukkur Division, after a thorough enquiry, reportedly came out with a disturbing report about the smuggling of wheat to other provinces with the blatant connivance of the officials of all departments including food, revenue and police. The entire yield of wheat crop is purchased by the government and its inter-provincial movement is banned. How these officials blatantly indulge in such a heinous crime and escape the wrath of the government. No follow up on this damning report is in sight.

These instances are just the tip of iceberg. The situation is worse. The unbridled greed for acquisition of wealth has blinded rulers and officers to the agony of the people. The province cannot afford this blatant misrule. The resignation to this unprecedented misrule by the people reflects their utmost despair with the factional politics of nationalists or the anti-PPP political forces. This is our hour of reckoning. Should we rise up to rid our land of the corrupt rulers or lay back to let it further sink in misery?

The Sindh Assembly passed a law exempting 220 senior PCS officers from the compulsory Assistant Collector’s Examination. Some of them had repeatedly tried to qualify it but failed. What a way out!!

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books