‘Forest officer leases 330 acres in Sukkur to family’

Committee formed on PAC orders submits findings

KARACHI: A deputy secretary of the Sindh forest department has been found involved in leasing 330 acres in Sukkur division to his family members.

An inquiry committee formed on the orders of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Saleem Raza Jalbani made these revelations about Abdul Jabbar Qazi. The committee was constituted in November 2014 following the auditor-general's report that forest land worth billions of rupees has been allotted  illegally by a bureaucrat.

Three officers of the forest department — Hyderabad's forest research, planning and evaluation conservator Habibullah Nizamani, Sukkur's forest afforestation conservator Zulfiqar Ali Memon and Hyderabad's forest working plan conservator Abdul Sattar Khatri — were appointed as members. In their report, the members held Qazi responsible for appointing 'a platoon' of Qazi family members in the forest department. "Due to unending greed of these types of officers to make wealth through illegal means, the department has suffered the most."



The report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, revealed that, in 2006, 40 acres in Panhwari Forest were leased to Abdul Rehman Qazi. He is the deputy secretary's nephew. "Soon after the lease order, the Sukkur forest conservator reported these facts to the administrative department in 2013," the report read. Instead of cancelling the lease or terminating Abdul Rehman on account of misconduct, the sanction of lease in Panhwari Forest was reissued in the name of Abdul Sattar Qazi, a cousin of Abdul Jabbar, it added.

Abdul Jabbar has also leased 60 acres in Sukkur's Ketishah Forest in the name of his relatives, along with 120 acres in Katta Forest. The so-called auction was conducted in 2008 and some of the beneficiaries are Abdul Sami Qazi, Abdul Rasheed Qazi, Naseer Ahmed Qazi, Toufique Ahmed Qazi and Zahid Hussain Qazi.

"This committee views that the lease cases of forest land are worst examples of corruption, bad governance, nepotism, tampering and forgery in records and abuse of official capacity to gain personal favours by Abdul Jabbar Qazi, the deputy secretary of the department," the committee said. It recommended the government cancel the lease and award him exemplary punishment.

Soon after the report was presented, PAC member MPA Sardar Shah pointed out how the forest department is awarding contracts to cut trees instead of defending forests.

Defending his deputy, forest secretary Rizwan Memon claimed the report was biased. The deputy secretary, who was also present in the meeting, requested the formation of another impartial committee to investigate the matter. "There is politics in our department and these inquiry officers are against me," he said.

The PAC formed a new three-member committee, comprising representatives from the anti-corruption, forest and revenue departments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2015.