Karachi: Two Officials Booked Over Rs8.5 Billion Misuse of Funds for Yellow Line BRT Project

Karachi authorities have booked two bureaucrats in connection with an alleged misuse of authority involving an advance payment of Rs8.5 billion to contractors for the Yellow Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The payment, made to contractors of the Yellow Line project, which aims to connect Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish using electric buses, reportedly caused substantial financial losses to the Sindh government.

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The project suffered from gross maladministration, blatant financial indiscipline, and both implicit and explicit losses to the government.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the former project director of the Karachi Mobility Project (KMP), Zameer Abbasi, and its former director of procurement, Jhaman Das, along with others. The FIR cites violations of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, stemming from an inquiry by the Chief Minister’s Inspection, Enquiries and Implementation Team Department (CMIE&ITD).

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There is no denying the fact that the project’s financial management is marred with severe indiscipline to the extent of criminal negligence in connivance with the contractors.

The inquiry highlighted "gross maladministration, blatant financial indiscipline, and both implicit and explicit losses to the government." The FIR states that the project's financial management was marred by "severe indiscipline to the extent of criminal negligence in connivance with the contractors." The advance payment was particularly contentious as the contract stipulated that contractors were responsible for arranging their own financing from the commercial market, a clause that appears to have been bypassed.

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The 'financial indiscipline [and] fraud' appeared to be in collusion with Jhaman Das, an employee of the Local Government Department, and the contractors were 'in league with Zameer Abbasi in seeking the favours'.