MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take steps to arrest “corruption, favouritism and maladministration” in the AJK Council.

Reminding the AJK leaders of the ruling party of their pre-election comments and commitments about the council, the PTI regretted that after coming to power they had eaten their words.

“The AJK Council in general and its department of inland revenue in particular have become hotbed of corruption, favouritism and bad governance but the PML-N that had made people falsely believe that it would make AJK a model of good governance has turned a blind eye towards the affairs of the council,” said Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, senior vice president of PTI in AJK, on Sunday.

The departments of inland revenue, audit and accounts fall under the administrative control of the council. The PTI leader said owing to its “endemic corruption, abuse of powers and funds for political manoeuvring and disdainful attitude towards the Kashmiris” the council had become a metaphor of hatred among the people of the state.

He said the council had a history of providing shelter to corrupt elements in the department of inland revenue.

He recalled that in 2012 when the then Ehtesab Bureau chairman Justice Hussain Mazhar Kaleem Shah took stock of corruption in the council and the department of inland revenue, the corrupt elements in the council used their clout to get him transferred.

Ever since files of corruption had been left unattended in the bureau despite the fact that scandals of more corruption have hit headlines in the local media on a regular basis, the PTI leader added.

He said the council had also spurned some of the judgments of the AJK courts which were not in accordance with its wishes.

The PTI leader claimed that revenue collection had suffered enormously as a consequence of rampant corruption in the department of inland revenue.

While tax collection by the FBR stood in excess of Rs3,100 billion during the fiscal year 2015-16, showing per capita tax collection of Rs16,000, the total tax collection by the AJK Council for the same period stood at Rs15 billion – per capita collection of bout Rs3,700.

“This state of affairs is even more alarming in the context of the fact that AJK has witnessed an investment of multi-billion dollars in hydel power projects in recent years which have huge potential for tax revenues,” he added.

Published in Dawn September 26th, 2016