Who Owns Pakistan - Yimg

The Presidential Orders for the dismissals of the federal govts in 1990, 1993 and
1996 had refered to corruption in various govt bodies and " authorities" as a
ground for dismassal. The word " authorities" was used to refer to corruption in
the development authorities like Capital Development Authority, Lahore
Development Authority and Karachi Development Authority.
Pakistan has at least 16 development authorities and each one requires volumes
like the exploits of Casanova to touch upon their corruption and rot. The 7-hour
ordeal that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif underwent on March 11, 1997 in the
Faisalabad Development Authority, viewed by millions of people over Pakistan
Television gave only a birds-eye view of the tip of iceberg of corruption in these
authorities.
In addition to the 16 development authorities, Pakistan has two metropolitan
corporations, 12 big municipal corporations, 24 cantonment boards, 6 Water and
Sewerage Authorities and more than a hundred municipal committees. All these
local govt units have their own sources of income and budgets amounting to Rs
25 billion per annum nearly.
The tales of corruption that the govt and opposition has been telling the nation for
last two decades including the ripping-off the biggest development authorities like
CDA,LDA, KDA and PDA. However , the plunder of smaller development
authorities like the Rawalpindi Development Authority, Gujranwala Development
Authority and Faisalabad Development Authority has largely remained untold.
At a press conference in Islamabad, on the eve of February 3, 1997 elections,
Imran Khan, chief of Tehrik-e-Insaf released a list of 2,631 plots that were alloted
by Nawaz Sharif during 1985-90, in violation of his powers and rules. A
document distributed at the press conference estimated that " the cost of this
large scale robbery by the leader of PML who presents himself as an honest
leader to the nation comes to Rs 5 billion"
In 1990 and 1996 when Benazir Bhutto was dismissed, she was charged with
allotment of CDA plots to favorites while her chief ministers were accused of
similar malpractices in Karachi Development Authority and Peshawar
Development Authority. It was alleged that she had caused a loss of Rs 1,310
million to CDA simply by alloting big size plots to educational institutions of her
choice.
The foundation of corruption in the local bodies is the system of awarding
contracts for revenue collection and other municipal functions to private
contractors and over the years, the contractors, colluding officials and politicians
have hammered out a mutually beneficial, pool system under which they are
ripping off the common men but only a fraction of the amount reaches the govt
coffers. The common men and businessmen from all over Pakistan have
complained against over charging by octroi contractors who are invariably
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