Govt funds meant for development not corruption: SC judge

Yasal Munim

May 6, 2019

The funds released by the government should be spent on developing cities. The amount is released but government employees spend it on themselves, remarked a Supreme Court judge.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, was hearing the pre-arrest bail petitions of three sub-engineers in a corruption case at the court’s Karachi Registry on Monday.

The sub-engineers, Ali Saleem, Basheer Ahmed, and Imtiaz Ahmed, have been accused of misusing funds allocated for a town committee in Sujawal.

“You can’t deny that development funds have been embezzled. No development work has been carried out in Sujawal,” said Justice Ahmed.

Governments are able to release funds after a lengthy process, he said. “It is not fair that the government officials embezzle these funds.”

There are so many places where people don’t have access to water and hospitals, the judge said, adding that children had no playgrounds either.

Muhammad Sachal Awan, the lawyer of the sub-engineers, argued that they have not committed any offence. “They have, instead, condemned the rampant corruption in government departments,” he told the court.

The contractors have accepted that they gave fake contracts, said Justice Ahmed. “How can we trust anything you say?” The court then dismissed the case.

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Sindh government Supreme Court