THATTA, Oct 6: Leaders of public opinion, NGO activists, and renowned academicians have accused the district Nazim, Syed Shafqat Hussain Shah Shirazi, of misappropriating the district funds.

This was stated in their telegrams, sent separately to President Pervez Musharraf, the World Bank’s country director, John W Wahl, the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the governor of Sindh, the provincial education minister and other authorities.

They accused the district Nazim of misuse of funds, provided by the World Bank and the Sindh government, for academic institutions, in connivance with concerned officials.

They called for instituting an inquiry into the matter.

The signatories to the telegrams included former MNA Babu Ghulam Hussain, chief of the Gothabad Sangat Mustafa Zaur, Aakash Zaur, ex-MPA Abdul Wahid Soomro, renowned academician Ghulam Hussain Rangrez, Haji Shams Memon, ex-MPA Arbab Wazir Memon, Imtiaz Qureshi and, Dr Shahid.

The World Bank had recently given Rs61.291 million for providing furniture and fixture to 2,209 primary, mosque and middle schools located in Thatta, Mirpur Sakro, Sujawal and Jati talukas.

An amount of Rs173,000 had been earmarked for each room of these schools. The total rooms in all the schools add up to 3,634.

The complainants accused the district Nazim of forming a five-member School Management Committee (SMC), consisting of ‘yes-men.’

The Nazim, they alleged, had signed blank work orders containing no serial number from any of the SMCs besides having gotten the cheques signed for disbursement of funds.

As per specification all the items were to be made of teakwood but the furniture provided through his own contractor was made of the cheapest wood.

They also said that the Nazim had supplied all consignments through the assistant district education officer, instead of being sent through the SMCs, to overcome any possible resistance.

The signatories to the telegrams accused Shirazi of having misappropriating 70 percent of the total funds.

Recently, they said, a sum of Rs13 million had been allocated by the Sindh government for provision of books as an incentive to primary students of the district, but the Nazim utilised not more than 30 percent of the amount for the purpose.

MINISTER: Federal Minister for information and media development, Nisar Ahmed Memon has said that if there were complaints of misappropriation of development funds by Thatta district Nazim, Shafqat Shirazi, the complainants should move the National Accountability Bureau.

He was talking to journalists here on Sunday after inaugurating the Pakistan Television’s Thatta transmitter at Makli.

He said that the Election Commission had taken notice of the election campaigning by some Sindh ministers.

Earlier, speaking at the inauguration ceremony, the minister said the government was proud of having changed the country’s media culture.

Memon said that the government had withdrawn excessive restrictions from the print and electronic media in accordance with the constitutional guarantees.

He said that such a liberal attitude was never experienced during successive previous governments, adding that this fact was being acknowledged internationally.

Anyone, he said, can write or speak for or against anyone in the government, adding that no one is being harassed by any agency or police.

Nisar said that the government believed in democracy and that it was striving for its restoration.

The minister accused the past governments of having periodically weakened the institutions for their interests, saying that this government had restored the people’s right to expression.

The government’s sincere efforts, he said, had been instrumental in bringing down the graph of corruption in the country, adding that now Pakistan stood 26th against the once dishonouring 2nd in the world’s corruption index.

He also highlighted the achievements of the government on the financial front, saying the government had pulled the country back from the brink of an acute crisis.

Now, he said, Pakistan has over eight billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserve.

He did not dispute the fact that no army head of state had restored democracy, while saying that the people will realise the government’s sincerity in this regard after the October polls.

Emphasising on the government efforts to hold a fair and impartial election, the minister said that President Gen Musharraf will remain in power for the next five years.