Bilawal urged to fix responsibility for poor civic infrastructure

KARACHI: Chairman Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Altaf Shakoor has asked from PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to get established a high-powered commission for the forensic audit of the government civic infrastructure contracts to fix the responsibility for the poor civic infrastructure in Karachi and sack the corrupt officials and blacklist the corrupt contractors and not to give party tickets to the corrupt elements that are involved in this mega scam.Notoriously corrupt nexus of bureaucracy and private contractor companies are responsible for the poor civic infrastructure in Karachi that crumbles with every rain in the megacity, said Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.He said the provincial government of Sindh and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) release billions of rupees every year for the civic infrastructure projects like roads, streets and drainage, but the lion’s share of this money allegedly goes into the pocket of a bunch of corrupt contractors, as well as, the corrupt ministers and government officers who give them contracts on the basis of commission and kickbacks. He claimed that a hidden ‘corrupt system’ works inside the Sindh government and each and every government contract is given after getting a nod from this ‘system’. He said if a forensic audit of the civic infrastructure contracts of the past two decades is conducted it would be clearly known that only a particular blue-eyed bunch of contractors get the lucrative government contracts as they pay commission and kickbacks to the corrupt officers. These corrupt contractors also arrange rallies for their political patrons and run their election campaigns, he alleged.He said these contractors use substandard material in the construction of roads, streets, drains, bridges, flyovers and other civic infrastructure projects despite they are already given contracts on over-priced quotations. He said every year this corrupt system of the Sindh government pockets billions of rupees from the hard-earned taxpayers’ money. He said this a mega fraud that is being conducted in a systematic way in the province of Sindh. He said though such ‘systems’ also run in other provinces but they are minions when compared to the mighty ‘system’ of Sindh province. Altaf Shakoor said this is even a bigger scam than the capacity payments scam of the IPPs, but it is still hidden from the sharp eye of media, civil society and secret agencies of the state. He demanded from the concerned quarters to take notice of this brutal waste of the government funds as this is the matter of the internal secretary of the country as it is hollowing the economic foundations of the nation and country. He said on one hand the international lenders and IPPs loot our budget and on the other hand this bureaucracy- contractor nexus plunders our taxpayers money. He said in the recent rains almost all roads and streets of the megacity went broken even those that were recently constructed and repaired. He said though the government, mostly through same corrupt contractors, has initiated a so-called patchwork to repair these potholed roads and streets but again the quality of this patchwork is very poor and after the coming rains they would surely need another round of patchwork and it would further bleed our budget. He asked if there is a department, agency of any ‘institution’ to take notice of this broad daylight robbery of our precious national resources. He demanded from the chief of army staff General Syed Asim Munir to take a personal notice of this loot and plunder that is devouring our economy. He also demanded from Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to take notice of this alleged corrupt ‘system’ working inside the provisional government of his party in Sindh that is giving a bad name to his party and its founding father Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was a people-friendly visionary leader of our country and who would take a great interest in providing basic facilities to the people.Meanwhile, PDP arranged a big demo in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) here Sunday against lavish spending of Rs2 billion to purchase luxury cars for Sindh bureaucrats.Addressing the demo, PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor said that people are commuting in broken minibuses and Chingchi rickshaws, while government is buying costly vehicles for its officers. He asked why the government has no money to improve public transport facilities for the common man. He asked why the government of Sindh has no money to improve broken roads and streets and overflowing gutters. He asked how much commission the rulers would earn on this deal of vehicle purchase.Copyright Business Recorder, 2024