“I am not going to disclose the names of ministers allegedly charged with corruption cases since investigations are at an initial stage,” he said. The director-general did not disclose the nature of the cases either.
The watchdog has been authorised to hold inquiry into 25 cases this year, the director-general said, adding that of these, as many as 13 are being investigated by NAB while 11 references have been filed in courts, with four people convicted in these cases.
“NAB has recovered Rs200 million out of Rs3 billion in 25 cases, and a total of 22 accused have been arrested,” he said.
According to NAB, the major ongoing cases include those against officials of railway, zakat, food, and health departments.
“There are six cases against government officers from the [afore-mentioned] departments,” he said.
The authority has sealed three warehouses of the health department since thousands of sacks of wheat were missing from various food procurement centers.
Citing large scale corruption in various other departments, including the Balochistan Development Authority, the communication and works and the education departments, the provincial NAB chief said that “the menace has to be eradicated otherwise it will affect the rest of the province.”
About Rs15 million have been embezzled in Quetta Electric Supply Company besides corruption in procurement of machines for Bolan medical Complex and in the Ziarat earthquake victim funds, the official said.
He added that NAB will hold a seminar on Friday (today), marking the anti-corruption day.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2011.
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It's a great start. At best it will set a precedent. Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency.
It does not matter from where to start; the thing matters is - they have started. And besides like previous investigation, it will also become a part of the corruption. By concealing the names or even any idea towards them does not make any sense. Just mentioning the department they just want to give the SAID ones a hint and what not. Well Good luck with your mission.
I would've wished that this 'charging' would've started from the more populous provinces e.g. Punjab and Sindh rather than balauchistan...it would've made not only more sense but we would've caught a bigger number - concerned punabi !