Educated and corrupt

At least 9,500 fake teaching and non-teaching appointments were appointed during previous PPP government's tenure.

There are occasions when it is almost impossible to conceptualise the breadth and depth of corruption in Pakistan. One such relates to a massive scam that has been exposed in the education sector in Sindh that reaches across into the office of the Sindh accountant general. There are at least 9,500 allegedly fake teaching and non-teaching appointments that have been made during the tenure of the previous PPP government; and they are currently drawing around Rs20 million a month in salaries and allowances. Investigative reporting by this newspaper reveals that appointments were made through fraudulent means and copies of pay slips are available to support the allegation of fraud. None of this would have been possible without the active cooperation of the provincial auditor general who signs off on the pay of the appointees; further, those who have received offer letters will have had to have received fitness certificates through the Civil Surgeon Services Hospital.

When contacted and presented with the evidence, the Sindh Education Minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, said that his department will take action against the culprits ‘after collecting all available evidences’. This newspaper has saved him the time and trouble and he should be able to move swiftly having established the veracity of what is now on his desk. This is a scam that involves hundreds if not thousands of officials in, at least, two large departments and is committed by educated people to defraud the very department that is supposed to be providing the baseline education for the children of Sindh. Not only is this individually reprehensible — and it may be an impossibility to prosecute everybody involved — but it demonstrates the depth of penetration of a corrupt and criminal mentality in our society. There is no office of state that is untainted, no department that rises above the gutter in terms of where it calibrates its moral compass. We hope Mr Khuhro will indeed take action that is needed to correct this state of affairs.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2014.

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