GUJRANWALA: Pakistan People’s Party City Information Secretary Sagheer Butt said city’s solid waste management company had become a white elephant as Gujranwala citizens were yet to see an improvement in the city’s state of cleanliness. He said despite the millions in funds given to the waste management company, heaps of garbage were littering most of the city’s roads and streets.
Butt made the comments in a meeting with party members. He alleged that waste management company officers were involved in corruption of millions but no action had been taken yet by Punjab CM. He said, instead of being punished, a corrupt official of the company was made Managing Director (MD). Butt said Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif always teaches lessons of honesty and merit to others, but had his eyes closed when it came to the mega corruption in the waste management company. Butt accused a local Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) of being complicit in the corruption.
Butt said an enquiry had already been completed by the CM’s appointed committee in this regard, which named the people involved in the corruption but no action had been taken.
He said the waste management company was fooling the citizens of Gujranwala. He said the company had failed to put waste disposal bins at landfill sites and citizens had to live in a filthy environment.
Butt said the waste management company had terminated an agreement with a Turkish company to clean up the city’s garbage and was operating with hired machinery, costing the company much more. He said this was being done to benefit certain contractors.
He asked the government to forward the matter of corruption in waste management company to National Accountability Bureau for a neutral and efficient investigation. He also demanded that MD and secretary of waste management company be arrested immediately as their corruption had been proven by two separate enquires, one ordered by Punjab CM and the other by the city’s deputy commissioner Gujranwala President of the People’s Trade Cell Zulfiqar Bhutto, President PYO Taimoor Dar, PSF President Adnan Jamil Arai, Amanat Mahar, Mian Shiraz, Shabir Kamboh, Ikram Mughal, Naeem Mughal and other workers attended the meeting.
Published in Daily Times, October 23rd 2017.
