Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel Federal Caretaker Minister for Overseas Pakistanis. PHOTO: EXPRESS
For a caretaker federal minister, the world is full of opportunities. And cars. And shiny, new kitchen utensils.
Though elected representatives have gone, and caretakers have filled their shoes, the interim Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Barrister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel has done much to ensure that the long-preserved legacy of financial impropriety remains alive.
On April 5, the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) received the most flabbergasting request: new pots, pans and dishes worth Rs60,000 were to be procured for the new minister’s house. And April 5 was only Kakakhel’s third day in office.
However, an official later revealed to The Express Tribune that the OPF had “nothing to do with this” and that the delivery of crockery to the new minister’s home was the responsibility of the respective ministry.
And then it rained cars
Now that the kitchen was sufficiently furnished, the garage looked quite empty. Cars, thought Kakakhel. A minister’s garage has to sport a decent number of cars.
Kakakhel’s personal secretary dispatched a message to the ministry, which said that the minister wanted six not-so-humble varieties of vehicles to be delivered to him “within 15 minutes”. The orders were obeyed. Two Toyota Hilux, one Toyota Altis, one Toyota Gli, one Toyota 2.OD and one Honda City drove in.
Not at all pleased with the new fleet of cars, five more vehicles including two double cabin cars, two Honda Civics, and one bullet-proof car was taken from the ministry of human resource development, sources told The Express Tribune.
Kakakhel is now the proud possessor of 11 vehicles paid for by the national treasury.
Nepotism
On another interesting front, the minister has taken several steps to save the skin of some friendly officers found guilty by a high level inquiry committee constituted to probe into alleged irregularities in OPF.
In this regard, the minister issued orders on April 10 to repatriate Director General Human Resource & Administration Syed Khalid Ali Raza Gardezi to his parent department.
Sources told The Express Tribune that Gardezi was the person who had been working on Supreme Court directives of implementing the findings of the inquiry report that dates back to 2000. The task was supposed to be completed on October 23, 2012 but the court gave extra time till May 25 for the implementation. The move may cause further delay in implementation of court orders, they added.
According to inquiry findings, there were several others appointed who had violated rules – but were still serving or in some cases had retired.
The case of Saifur Rehman Khan, according to the report, is pertinent here. He was appointed in 1985 against a post that never existed and then was given promotion in 1990 without approval of the Board of Governors.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2013.
COMMENTS (18)
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@FN: "This is what Imran Khan says. These old faces have hurt Pakistan badly. Time for a new face, youth and change." . How old did you say your Imran Babe was?
@Ali Hazara: You are right . His days are numbered. He could have heart attack any time. To my little knowledge , he should be a diabetic, having high cholesterol , high BP, .He looks obese. His BMI should be more than Forty. He might have already gone thru Cataract surgery. But then I could be totally wrong and he could be enjoying his cars till he gets to 100 yrs.
hail democracy - no ajinomoto here!
Hail democracy- no ajino moto here!
He's really a CAR-taker minister :)
This is what Imran Khan says. These old faces have hurt Pakistan badly.
Time for a new face, youth and change.
A man given to opulence and treats public funds as his own is blot on any society. This man is all too generous to himself to be of any use to the long suffering public!
I am tired of Judicial notices - some of these crooks needs to land in jail, period!
Couldn't they tell when they hired a potato for the job?
What? Caretaker for overseas Pakistanis and overseas Pakistanis don't even know about him? Plus he is playing no role in getting voting rights. What a piece of work. At least I know what he is busy with.
Why in the world would we need an interim minister for overseas pakistanis?
I hope the CJ orders him to wash ALL the pots and pans as well as the dozen cars and he's also made to change the oil of ALL the vehicles at his own expense. May work wonders for the lump of corrupted corruption.
@Ali Hazara: I'm so confident of what you say (and it was said so well I might add!) I'm almost prepared to hold my breath while waiting. He certainly didn't need to demand anything involving food or its preparation. He did, however, desperately (some may say URGENTLY!!!) require a heavy duty exercise bike. However, perhaps he's too late for that!
When the CJ takes judicial notice of all sorts of things from sugar prices to ex-Presidents, he should not remain silent on something like this.
And then we expect these civilians to stand to serve the people of this country.....
Seeing his pic, I'm sure the nature is about to take its course. Fingers and toes crossed.
This man certainly needs to go to jail for financial excesses at tax-payers expense. DNA of Pakistani Muslims has always been a problem. Hopefully communism will cure their problem as they will lose everything including their clothes.