The central media cell of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has issued a white paper on massive corruption and irregularities in the various departments of the Punjab government. The PAT media cell has maintained that the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) verified these irregularities and corruption prevalent in the government departments in his report for 2014 and expressed his grave concern on these issues.

The report of the Auditor General that spreads over 444 pages has revealed that 16 departments of the Punjab government spent Rs. 195 million over and above their powers. The spending of whopping money was not necessary either. The report said that this unwarranted and merciless spending of public funds points to absence of the system of checks and balances. According to the said report of the Auditor General of Pakistan, 16 departments of the government failed to submit the record of expenditure to the tune of Rs. 5349 million. The while paper on the financial mismanagement of the Punjab government has been prepared under the supervision of PAT President Dr Raheeq Ahmad Abbasi and Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur.

Expressing their grave concern on financial mismanagement and deviations from the standard norms and procedures in Punjab, the PAT leaders said that while Agha Waqar who claimed to run car on water fooled the nation once, the Punjab Chief Minister has repeatedly fooled the people of the province. They said that the latest episode in this regard is the announcement regarding discovery of reservoirs of gold and iron in Chiniot. They said that information based on documented proof will be brought before the nation in a few days.

The central PAT leaders said that every department of Punjab has been destroyed due to ‘one-man show’ that has continued for seven years continuously and the seal of approval and verification on this destruction is being put by the official documents. The white paper said that Anti-Corruption Department of Punjab revealed in a report on February 27 that police tops the list of being the most corrupt department in the province followed by education department. Both of these two departments are the ones listed on the top of the Punjab Chief Minister’s reform agenda.

The PAT white paper has further said that the Punjab government does not have any idea as to how much domestic and foreign borrowing it got, how much money was paid back and how much is still left to be paid along with interest. Referring to the report of the Auditor General of Pakistan, the paper has said that ‘drunk’ political experts and the Finance Department made over payments of Rs. 14000 million in terms of payment of interest and instalments on loans taken during 2014 and there is a visible difference of billions of rupees between bank accounts and the accounts being maintained by the Punjab government.

The paper termed this to be unique instance of corruption, irregularity, bad governance and mismanagement of its kind in history of Punjab. The departments listed by the report of the Auditor General as being hub of corruption include Finance, Aukaf, Food, Forests, Health, Higher Education, School Education, Culture, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Live Stock, Mines and Minerals, Population and Welfare, Services and General Administration, Social Welfare, Women Development and Bait-ul-Maal, Youth Affairs and Sports, Archives and Tourism departments.

The white paper has said that the rulers having an eye on commissions and kickbacks in such mega projects as metro bus, motorway, LDA Cities, and power plants are not bothered about the irregularities of billions of rupees in different departments of their government. It has further revealed that the provincial government has become the biggest Qabza group of the country. The government has planned to buy 60,000 kanal of land in seven suburb areas of Lahore in the name of LDA City by purchasing each Marla per Rs. 3000 from the owners and selling it at whopping sum of Rs. 3 lacs. It said that land mafias are roaming around in the suburbs under the official patronage to buy lands from their owners. They give threats of dire consequences to people who refuse to sell their lands. The PAT is collecting facts in this regard and these will be brought to the knowledge of the nation soon.