DADU: The Gorakh Hill Station Authority’s former chairman Rafiq Ahmad Jamali has said in an apparent bid to clarify his position in the wake of caretaker chief minister’s orders to investigate corruption and irregularities in the authority’s affairs that National Acco­untability Bureau had also conducted an inquiry for four years but found nothing incriminatory against him.

Jamali, who was ex-MNA of Pakistan Peoples Party, welcomed the chief minister’s decision at a press conference at Dadu Press Club on Sunday and said that since he was no more chairman of the GHDA, the hill station’s project director was in the best position to provide details about the authority’s affairs.

He said the caretaker chief minister was a man of good reputation and he should direct the project director to brief him in order to help him take an informed decision with relevant evidence.

He said that he did not know how many employees were working for the authority and how many had left since his tenured ended. He used only two vehicles as head of the authority which he had returned to the caretaker minister and he did not have any vehicle now, he said.

He said that he extended invitation to the caretaker chief minister as a common resident of Dadu so that the CM could see with his own eyes what he had done in Gorakh hills during his tenure as chairman of the authority. If someone had not seen the hills station and relied only on briefings then he would have a completely different perception of things on ground, he said.

He said the NAB inquiry that lasted for four years found nothing against him. Actually, no officer was ready to work and hence the development work suffered and allocated funds lapsed during his tenure, he said.

He said that the roads that had been built through the hills were routinely damaged by rains and landslides but despite this tourists could reach the hills station.

Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar took notice a day before of misappropriation of funds meant for the Gorakh Hill Station Project and said the project remained incomplete despite expenditure of a massive amount of funds which had reportedly been pocketed by the officers concerned, said an official press release issued on Sunday.

He said the project had hired 18 drivers and owned a fleet of vehicles but most of them were being misused. He had received reports that 12 cooks employed for the project were working at the homes of private persons instead of performing their duties at the resort and even the resorts were being misused, he said, adding he had received reports that not a single employee was working.

He, therefore, directed Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Muhammad Fakhre Alam Irfan to issue an explanation notice to the project director, launch a high-level inquiry to probe the use of funds under all heads in the authority and submit to him a report within 15 days, said the release.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2023