Pindi anti-corruption watchdog sets 60-day inquiry deadline

Regional head concedes they face institutional and political pressures

RAWALPINDI: To speed up the process of corruption investigations, the Anti-Department has set a 60-day deadline to complete inquiries into cases. The new deadline is set to go into effect from the new year.

This was disclosed by the Anti-Corruption Department’s Rawalpindi Region Director Arif Rahim recently.

Giving an overview of the department’s performance, Rahim said that all inquiries from 2016 until September 2018, will be completed before the end of the year.



Moreover, he noted that their scope had increased from the Rawalpindi district to encompass all 23 tehsils within the Rawalpindi Division.

About their investigations, he said that they get the most complaints about the treasury and police departments.

Rahim, though conceded that they face institutional and political pressures but are not compromising on merit.

He said that they are currently conducting an inquiry into alleged corruption in a mega project with the probe now in its final phase and that soon they will catch a few big fishes.

Moreover, he said that they have taken note of reports that there was some corruption in the construction of the Rawalpindi City Police Station and have launched an inquiry into the matter.

Noting that previously land record staff were deemed untouchables, they had conducted transparent inquiries and sent corrupt officials to jail.

For an internal cleanup, he said that all those officers who had been deputed in the division for years have either been transferred or surrendered. Strict action is taken against those officers against whom they receive complaints after a transparent inquiry.

To ensure this, the officer who is supposed to receive complaints has been barred from receiving complaints against themselves.

Asked about the mushroom growth of illegal housing schemes, the anti-corruption official said that they have redirected complaints to the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA).

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2018.