LAHORE: The Punjab government has ordered a province-wide crackdown on corruption and administrative malpractice, setting up a confidential cell that will report directly to the Chief Minister and pointing citizens to a public complaint helpline for reporting bribery and abuse of authority.
According to an official statement issued on Thursday, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif directed the launch of a zero-tolerance campaign under which the cell will identify corruption and initiate action against those found involved. The statement said Helpline 1350 had been made functional to receive public complaints.
Records of the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) show 1350 is the department’s long-standing helpline, listed against its headquarters at 2-Faridkot House, Lahore. The announcement therefore appears to route complaints into an existing statutory channel rather than create a new one — a distinction that matters, because ACE already has arrest, inquiry and prosecution powers under the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment Act. What is new is the confidential cell and the reporting line running directly to the Chief Minister’s office.
Under the directive, reports compiled by the cell will be submitted directly to the Chief Minister, bypassing intermediate administrative tiers, with arrests to be initiated where necessary. The statement said Maryam Nawaz would personally monitor action taken.
She has also made an independent review of the quality and expenditure of every development project mandatory — a significant procedural change in a province where the annual development portfolio runs into hundreds of billions of rupees.
The Chief Minister ordered that complaints be acted upon within a stipulated timeframe and appealed to citizens to report any demand for a bribe or misuse of authority without delay.
“Action will be taken on every complaint and the identity of the complainant will be kept completely confidential,” she said, adding that a single piece of information from the public could help expose an entire network of corruption and bribery.
Framing the campaign in moral rather than purely administrative terms, the Chief Minister said action against corrupt elements would continue until looted money was fully recovered.
“Corruption is not merely theft of money; it is theft of the rights and trust of the people,” she said. “Any hand reaching for public money will be stopped.”
The statement said a modern monitoring system would be deployed to oversee development projects. Noting that extensive funds had already been released, the Chief Minister warned that no one would be forgiven if a single rupee was not spent transparently.
“Public trust is the greatest asset of this government and I will not allow it to be compromised,” she said.
“Those who perform well will be encouraged through the CM Merit Badge, while those involved in corruption will face the law,” she said, declaring that every person involved in misappropriation of public money would be sent behind bars.
“Public money will be spent only on the people. Position, personal connections or recommendations will not be able to save anyone in corruption cases,” she added.
The announcement lands as the Punjab administration simultaneously manages flood compensation disbursements, a large livestock and health expansion, and a heavy development portfolio — all cash-intensive operations where leakage risk is highest.
Two measures will indicate whether this is enforcement or messaging. The first is disclosure: the government has not said how many complaints 1350 has received historically, how many became inquiries, or how many ended in conviction. The second is durability: anti-corruption drives in Punjab have been announced by successive administrations since the 1990s, and their record has typically been judged on prosecutions of senior officials rather than junior staff.
The Lahore Times has sought comment from the Anti-Corruption Establishment on complaint volumes and conviction rates. This report will be updated.
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