Red tape: Meet the tapedar who can’t be fired for corruption

The offici­al was dismis­sed after being found guilty by two separa­te inquir­ies, but was recent­ly reinst­ated.

SUKKUR:

An official of the provincial revenue department, who was dismissed after being found guilty of tampering with land records, was recently reinstated to his old job by the Sindh Board of Revenue.

Nadir Ali Bhutto, a former tapedar of Deh Dodai in Larkana district, was dismissed by then-Larkana Commissioner Asif Haider Shah nearly six months back, after he was found guilty by a departmental inquiry committee. Nadir Bhutto wasinvolved in tampering revenue records of lands owned by members of Larkana’s reputed Qadri family, including former Board of Revenue member Altaf Hussain Qadri and former Sindh Accountant General Zulfiqar Ali Qadri.

Bhutto and Mukhtiarkar Iqbal Tunio allegedly sold Qadri family land worth Rs5 million to a third party on the basis of fake documents, without informing the family.

Former Commissioner Shah told The Express Tribune that two inquiries were conducted into the suspectedmisappropriation. The first was conducted by the revenue department’s additional commissioner, while the other inquiry was conducted by Qamber-Shahdadkot’s deputy commissioner. Shah dismissed Bhutto after both inquiries found him guilty.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment assistant director in Larkana, Himmat Ali Chandio, said that the Qadri family had also submitted an application against the tapedar. The Anti-Corruption Committee was provided the inquiry report, and in turn it recommended that he be booked.

However, sources reveal that Bhutto kept running from pillar to post in the provincial revenue department and tried to influence senior officials in order to regain his old job at Deh Dodai. They also claimed that Bhutto was in the good books of influential politicians and bureaucrats in the province. His efforts seemed to have paid off as he was reportedly reinstated by a senior Sindh Board of Revenue member, Shazoor Shamoon.

Larkana deputy commissioner Abdul Aleem Lashari told The Express Tribune that Bhutto was not posted to his old job so far, but that he had submitted a joining report in his office. Lashari admitted that he was under pressure to issue Bhutto’s posting orders, but added that “I will not succumb to it.”

When contacted, “I don’t remember whether I reinstated him. I don’t remember each and every case that comes before me,” saidShamoon about the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2012.