Bad grass imports: 3 PHA officials suspended for embezzlement

ACE Punjab initiates criminal inquiry against the officials

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has reportedly suspended the director general (DG) of the Rawalpindi Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) and two other officials over embezzlement allegations in a deal for importing grass.

A PHA official on Thursday told The Express Tribune that PHA DG Dr Abid Malik had been suspended after an inquiry conducted by the Punjab Chief Minister’s special inspection team recommended the action.

The team had been probing complaints of importing substandard grass for the football ground which is being built in the under-construction Shahbaz Sharif Park in the garrison city.

The two other officials who were suspended include Aziz Ullah, a director in PHA, and Muhammad Saqib, a deputy director in the authority.

The two officials were holding temporary charges in PHA since they had originally been inducted in the Water and Sewerage Agency (WASA).

The PHA official further added that after the inquiry, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Punjab had also initiated a criminal inquiry against the three officials.

An official in ACE Rawalpindi confirmed to The Express Tribune that an inquiry against the three officials had been completed by the establishment’s director general in Lahore and had recommended criminal action against the officials.

Dr Malik, though, was not immediately available for his comments.

When contacted, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Talat Gondal expressed his ignorance over the suspension reports.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Malik Abrar Ahmed, who is also the chairman of the PHA, confirmed that the three officials had been suspended following recommendations from the CM’s inspection team.

The suspended PHA director general had already been under a cloud of irregularities in the recently-initiated process for appointments in the authority.

A candidate, who had secured the first position in the written test conducted by NTS for the seat of deputy director, had written a letter to the Punjab Housing and Urban Development secretary highlighting irregularities in the process.

The candidate, a government employee, had pointed out that the written question paper was an old paper of Public Administration in the Central Superior Services (CSS) annual examination from 2000. He further noted that the interview panel for the posts consisted of junior officials from PHA even though they were conducting interviews for higher posts.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2017.