Sindh Cooperatives Dept, an estate agency?

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Tahir Hasan Khan
The Sindh Cooperatives Department has virtually been converted into a property office rather than a government establishment, and the authorities concerned are serving like estate agents, The News has learnt.

Officials confirming the corruption in the department disclosed that almost every government functionary knew about the corrupt practices of the Cooperative Department but no action was taken by higher authorities, as every officer and official of the department had the backing of ‘important’ personalities, including family members of the leadership of the present regime.

Sources revealed that a power tussle between the permanent authorities of the department and those who managed to get postings was the main cause of the corruption in the department being exposed. Sources said that the department was receiving thousands of complaints daily from the victims about occupation of their plots or the allotment of their plots to others as well as the sale of valuable commercial plots of the cooperative societies through the administrator.

However, all complaints have been dumped as junk in the office and no action was taken against any official.

Sources said that the modus operandi included authorities first taking control of a cooperative society through the appointment of an administrator. The administrator then allots plots to any builder at market value, however on record, the plot is shown to be sold at the official rate.

After publication of the report in The News about corruption in the Cooperatives Department, a number of people contacted the newspaper and provided documents and evidence showing how they were deprived of their plots and narrated the corruption of functionaries.

Sources said that secret agencies had also sent a detailed report about corruption and land grabbing in cooperative societies to the president and the prime minister. President Asif Ali Zardari took serious note of the corruption, and instructed federal interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah to investigate the land grabbing scam in Karachi.

Shah visited Karachi last week and held detail meetings with the authorities concerned to collect the information about the grabbing of government and private land but the land scam in the Cooperatives Department was ignored.

Authorities claimed that land grabbing in cooperative societies was not included in the task of Syed Kamal Shah. A report submitted to the president and the prime minister pointed out that more then Rs800 million worth of land had been sold at throwaway prices to builders or favourites of the authorities of the department.

According to official documents, no action was taken against an officer of the Department while a former secretary, Muhammad Hussain Syed, had written to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate how the department had auctioned some prime land of the Gwalior Cooperative Society on the day following Benazir Bhutto’s murder despite the volatile law-and-order situation.

According to the letter, the land was sold at an average price of Rs8,000 per square yard, which is much less than the prevailing market value, while the concerned officer pocketed a huge amount.

Sources said that despite taking action against the officer concerned, the authorities transferred Muhammad Hussain Syed and promoted the current department secretary, Azhar Ali Baloch, as Cooperatives Department Secretary.

Senior officers of the department complained to the chief secretary that Azhar Baloch had not qualified for the post through any examination of the Sindh Public Service Commission, while competent officers who passed public service commission exams were already working in the department. These officers claimed that Azhar Baloch had backing of Dr Shafqat Soomro, a Town Nazim of Ratto Dero, Larkana, who is a close adviser to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) women’s wing chief Faryal Talpur.

Sources said that in a large number of cases pending in the Anti-Corruption Department, investigation had been stopped against some officers on the instructions of the hierarchy, while insiders claimed that political leadership was behind this halt in the investigation.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=181523