Punjab drags feet on minister's probe

PML-N govt has not yet notified earlier announced inquiry committee

LAHORE:

The PML-N led Punjab government has not initiated any inquiry against Minister for Mine and Mineral Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani. It has also not officially notified the head of a five-member inquiry committee—Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman—to probe into the scandal.

According to the press release issued by the CM office on August 8, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had formed a five-member committee led by Rehman to look into a viral video related to Gorchani and submit a report to the CM.

The CM also issued Gorchani a show cause notice and directed him to reply within three days as per the statement. Strangely, neither the show cause notice nor any official notification for constitution of probe committee has ever been made public.

Despite what was described as a strict notice, no committee has been constituted thus far, according to the head of this probe committee.

The CM has also not issued any order to the Anti-Corruption Establishment to look into the matter as the video pertained to a preplanned auction of some properties.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment has the legal mandate to investigate such cases. Some analysts believe that if such a video of any rival political party leader had surfaced the establishment would have taken cognizance of the matter immediately.

Interestingly, Punjab Minister for Information Azma Bukhari defended the decision of not invoking the jurisdiction of Anti-Corruption Establishment while talking to a private TV channel.

She said whatever Gorchani was committing was yet to happen. If only this act had taken place, this would have been dealt with in a different matter. This committee inquiring into the matter was only to assist the CM in taking her decision. She clarified that Gorchani had not been held accountable for anything.

The inquiry that is to help the CM take an informed decision is yet to commence.

Finance Minister Mujtabah Shujaur Rehman when approached by The Express Tribune said no inquiry has been initiated against Gorchani. When asked if any notification regarding this probe committee has been issued, he replied in the negative stating that he was not aware of any such notification.

Apparently CM Maryam's government has been using show cause notices in matters related to her party members, to kick the can down the road instead of taking action against them.

Prior to this, a show cause notice was issued to MPA Malik Zaheer Ahmad for not only misbehaving with a sub-inspector, who dared to check his vehicle but also for making him apologize to him. After a video of this incident went viral, CM herself called the sub-inspector and apologized to him.

Post the issuance of show cause notice, there was no word by the government on what material action was taken against him. Then there was another ugly episode of PML-N MPA Uzma Kardar using police to torture female employees of a local club. That show cause notice also met the same fate. Information Minister Azma Bukhari was reached multiple times for her comments, but she was not available.