Report sought on action against officers who voluntarily returned stolen money

Govt took action against 229 corrupt officers, SHC informed

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed on Thursday the provincial advocate-general (AG) to submit a detailed report regarding action initiated against officers in different departments of the provincial government who were restored on their posts after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) gave them a 'clean-chit' for voluntarily returning misappropriated or embezzled money despite being found guilty of corruption.

A two-judge bench, headed by SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, was hearing a case relating to the voluntary return of the misappropriated or embezzled amount by the government officers and their subsequent restoration to the posts after they were cleared by NAB.

In the last hearing, the court had directed the provincial AG to submit a detailed report on the action initiated by the government against the officers facing corruption inquiries and regarding the corrupt officers who were restored to their posts after they returned the embezzled money under the voluntary return (VR) scheme of the national anti-graft watchdog.



The AG, Barrister Zamir Ghumro, presented a report before the SHC, which stated that the government had taken action against 229 officers for their involvement in a graft scam. The report stated that 20 officers had been suspended. It also stated that 140 officers, against whom action was taken, had obtained a stay from the Supreme Court.

According to the report, departmental proceedings against 79 officers were still under way. The AG requested the court to grant more time to inform it about the fate of those officers.

However, the judges expressed their dissatisfaction over the report. The bench also expressed displeasure over the restoration of the officers who were found involved in corrupt practices.



The court directed the AG to submit a detailed report reflecting how much money had been embezzled and what action was taken against the officers who were involved in corruption.

The judges inquired from the NAB prosecutor about the money that had been returned by the officers under the VR scheme. To this, the prosecutor replied that the amount returned by the accused under the VR scheme was returned to the government departments concerned. The bench directed the prosecutor to submit a report explaining the utilisation of the amount voluntarily returned by the officers.