15 personnel appointed on fake domiciles, four of them have already retired, PAC told • Domiciles of 13 others are being verified by respective DCs KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly directed the government on Wednesday to register criminal cases against several policemen who had been recruited to the Sindh police using fake domiciles. The PAC meeting, headed by its Chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, also expressed grave concern over the mere issuance of show-cause notices to such personnel instead of dismissing them from service. During the examination of the audit records of the police department, it was revealed that as many as 19 police officers were recruited to the Sindh police on the basis of fake domiciles and domiciles from other provinces, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and the former Fata. An investigation into the matter was conducted on the orders of the PAC after the Audit Department raised objections to the disbursement of salaries amounting to Rs17.4 million to police personnel domiciled in other parts of the country but posted in Karachi. According to the inquiry report submitted to the PAC, 15 personnel were found to have been recruited on fake domiciles, and four of them had already retired. The PAC was informed that the domiciles of 13 other police personnel were still under verification by the respective deputy commissioners. It was further revealed that nine police personnel had been recruited on the basis of domiciles from outside the Karachi region. As per the Sindh Civil Servants Rules, posts in grades 1 and 2 are to be filled on a local basis, while those in grades 3 to 15, who serve only within a particular region or district, should be filled by persons domiciled in the district concerned. The PAC meeting, attended among others by committee members Khurram Karim Soomro and Taha Ahmed, Additional IG Muzaffar Ali Sheikh, DIG Finance Tanveer Odho, and DIG Traffic Pir Muhammad Shah, reviewed the audit reports of the police department for 2020 and 2021. DG Audit Sindh raised objections, saying that individuals holding identity cards from KP, FATA, Punjab, Balochistan and Islamabad were receiving salaries amounting to Rs17.405m from the Sindh provincial police department. DIG Finance Tanveer Odho told the PAC that these recruitments had taken place between 1979 and 2015 and that the police department had inquired into the recruitment of 196 personnel. The PAC chairman said that recruitment on fake domiciles would not be tolerated under any circumstances. “Why have the police personnel with fake domiciles or domiciles from other provinces not been dismissed from service?” he asked. DIG Odho informed the PAC that departmental action had been initiated against such officials and show-cause notices had been issued to them. “However, they will be dismissed from service after the procedure is completed,” he assured the committee. The DG Audit also raised concerns about irregularities in petrol expenditures for vehicles used by the DIG Traffic and subordinate offices. The traffic police chief informed the PAC that a petrol budget of Rs85m had been allocated, which was spent through Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and that complete records of the vehicles for which petrol was used were available. The committee ordered an inquiry into the use of such amount of petrol allocation. Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2025