Srinagar: Awami National Conference Vice President Muzafer Shah Wednesday said that Government of India needs to take a lesson from Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s order passed against former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani’s disbursing of funds to the tune of Rs 140 million to political parties in the 1990 election, which created Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI) to prevent Benazir Bhutto’s Party PPP winning the polls. According to their media reports, this order was issued on the petition filed by Air Marshall (retd) Asghar Khan.
In a statement to KMW, Shah said, that in similar fashion a writ petition is being considered to be filed by ANC in the court of law very soon in order to expose the dates, and the times from which the government of India Intelligence and other related agencies have been funding individuals and political parties in the state of J&K. With what purpose and to whose benefit, He questioned.
The Indian army as per the records are showing an expenditure to the tune of Rs 450 Cr in J&K, and as per them, it was to win the hearts and minds of people of Kashmir during the past fourteen years, while conducting Military- Civic programmes, especially in remote areas, for infrastructure development, health care, education and ‘National Integration Tours’. In 2010 alone, under Operation Sadhbhavna , the army is showing an expenditure of Rs 80 crores towards these programmes. But the question here arises- Have you won the Hearts of the people of Kashmir by spending such amounts? Has the army been provided the expenditure statements of the money spent by it through ministers /legislators and the so called public representatives? Have the same been audited by the army, the ANC Vice President questioned.
Shah further stated that such expenditures done through the army by selecting public representatives without consultation or knowledge of state government smacks of third degree corrupt practices foisted on the unfortunate people of this trouble torn state through their chosen ones. The army has no business to spend tax payers money in this state through these dubious methods and the public representatives that will be found involved in such scams need to be given exemplary punishment under law. He said.
While on the other hand there has been no result of about 168 inquiries ordered in the State to probe rights violations carried by the armed forces during the past 10 years, which have either remained incomplete or are pending due final reports for indictment of the guilty. The state also has not concluded 54 inquiries ordered into cases of rights violations in the State since the coalition governments took over, for reasons very obliviously known to them Shah said ruefully.
The ANC Senior Vice President has also demanded a detailed report to be made public by the NC-Cong coalition government on the fate of the 15 cases of corruption and misuse of official position, registered before the state accountability commission against politicians, including four sitting Ministers along with 64 other cases registered against top bureaucrats and Ministers in Vigilance Organization and Crime Branch. It is high time that the rot in over society is cleaned up and people found guilty are severely punished under law, He said.
