Smooth operators: 101 officials hold stake in transport business

PHC ordered inquiry after receiving information over their involvement.

PESHAWAR:

According to a report submitted at the Peshawar High Court by the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter, 101 government officials are active players in the public transport business. These 101 ‘businessmen’ operate from seven districts of the province.

NAB Prosecutor Azim Dad produced the report before a division bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Musarrat Hilali during the hearing of a case about substandard CNG cylinders and the involvement of government officials in the transport business.


Dad informed the bench that NAB had prepared the report after former chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan had taken notice of low quality CNG cylinders installed in public transport vehicles – these pose a serious threat of cylinder-related accidents – and the involvement of government employees in the transport business.

Conflicts of interest

While the document reported the involvement of officials from seven districts of the province, a similar report on 18 other districts is still being prepared.

From the 101 indicated in the report, 13 officials are from Swabi, 11 from Kohat, 13 from Malakand, seven from Haripur, 29 from Abbottabad, 21 from Lakki Marwat, and 7 from DI Khan. With a clear conflict of interest, these government officials have been accused of running and operating transport businesses in their respective districts.

In terms of the spread of ‘dual offices’, the said officials are currently employed in the police, levies, excise, education, public health, population welfare, and livestock departments. Some are installed at Wapda and some at government banks. The report produced by NAB names the alleged officials.



The counsel representing the transporters, Shah Nawaz Khan, however, informed the bench that the court’s orders are being complied with, and that fire extinguishers have been installed on most vehicles currently running on routes across K-P.

End of an era?

In the end, the division bench disposed of the petition – filed against excessive fares, sub-par cylinders and lack of fire extinguishers on public transport vehicles – because the case was primarily based on a suo motu notice.

The bench was also limited by the Supreme Court’s previous orders which restrained high courts from carrying out proceedings on such cases.

Former PHC chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan had directed the provincial government on September 13, 2013 to conduct an inquiry on the involvement of police and other bureaucratic officials in the transport business, so departmental action could be initiated against them.

He had ordered the NAB, Federal Investigation Agency and Anti-Corruption Establishment to probe the matter after the court received information that government employees were running transport-related businesses without prior permission from their respective departments.

The PHC also directed the chief secretary, police chief, and the establishment, federal and provincial interior secretaries to conduct separate internal inquiries to learn more about employees from their departments who were involved in running public transport ventures.

After these officials had been traced, according to court orders, the Federal Board of Revenue was to constitute a team which would examine whether these officials had paid all kinds of taxes, including submissions of income tax returns, and that whether they had declared the vehicles possessed by them as assets.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2014.