‘2,800 illegal appointments made in former IG’s tenure’

NAB files investigation report to SHC in corruption case

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the Sindh High Court on Wednesday that 2,800 illegal appointments were made in the Sindh police during the tenure of former IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali.

This was disclosed in a report based on the investigation into the illegal appointments in Sindh Reserve Police (SRP). The investigation was conducted on the orders of the Supreme Court (SC). Filing the investigation report during the hearing of bail application by the former top police official, NAB senior prosecutor Muhammad Munir Malik said the investigation has unveiled that 2,800 appointments of constables were made in contravention of the laws during 2013-2014 when Jamali was the police chief.

All such appointments were made by SRP Hyderabad SSP Ghulam Nabi Keerio, the prosecution stated, adding that the corrupt practices caused huge losses to the national exchequer. Therefore, the prosecutor opposed the former IG’s bail plea, saying that he did not deserve the relief of bail due to his involvement in such illegal acts.

Earlier, the former IG’s lawyer had moved an application seeking return of Rs1 million surety he had deposited against the court’s permission to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj in September this year. In the bail plea, Jamali had maintained that he had nothing to do with the scam, but still the NAB officials were issuing him call-up notices to appear and were causing harassment to him. Apprehending his arrest by the NAB, following his removal from the post in line with the SC’s observations, the former IG had approached the court to seek pre-arrest bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2016.