KARACHI - The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Sindh to dispose of all inquiries in corruption cases at the earliest and submit progress report in this regard in one month.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh resumed the hearing on the matter related to pending inquiries on the plea of Kher Bakhsh Jokhio. Advocate General of Sindh, Chairman of ACE Sindh Mukhtar Soomro and other officials of department appeared in the proceedings of the case. Chairman of ACE submitted a report in the court, which revealed that 1,569 inquiries related to corruption are underway in the province.

However, the court showed dissatisfaction over the report after observing that the inquiries related to Thatta district of the province have not beet( made part of the report. Bench head observed that officials are just concerned with drawing, salaries from the exchequers and least bothered to discharge their responsibilities.

Chairman ACE assured the court that investigation would be carried out against Owais Tabbi and Omni Group when Chief Justice SHC inquired about the investigations against them in Thatta. Court had sought the report against corruption pending in the ACE in the last hearing after court rejected the earlier report of the department against corruption.

According to the report of ACE, the department has divided the province in nine zones for carrying out inquiries against corruption.