SHC orders chief secretary to submit affidavit

483 officers removed as per court’s order

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed Chief Secretary Muhammad Rizwan Memon to submit an affidavit on Tuesday claiming that action was taken against the officers that were reinstated in different government departments in corruption cases.

Headed by SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh, a two-judge bench also directed Memon to submit certificates to be issued by the secretaries of each department, ensuring that action will be initiated against the officers, by December 12. The judges were hearing the case for the reinstatement of Thatta’s district accounts officer, Ghulam Mustafa Lund, after voluntarily returning millions of embezzled money.

Advocate-General Barrister Zamir Ghumro filed a report mentioning 483 officers, who were reinstated in different departments after entering a plea bargain and/or voluntarily returning the amount involved in graft scams to National Accountability Bureau (NAB), had been removed from their posts in compliance with the court’s orders passed earlier.



However, a law officer informed that the Supreme Court had passed restraining orders against officers, who entered a plea bargain or opted for voluntary return of money and were involved in corruption of less than Rs2.5 million.

The officers were performing duties on different posts in different grades, ranging from grade-1 to grade-18 and the departments to which they belong include the finance, police, education, health, food, social welfare, and wildlife and forest departments. According to NAB, the officers had returned as many as Rs16 billion.

The chief-secretary said that he had issued directives to the secretaries of all the departments to remove these officers from their posts and submit certificates to this effect to his office. He also requested the court to extend the submission deadline so as to collect all the certificates in time.