In solidarity: Bahawalpur officials join strike

BAHAWALPUR: Bahawalpur Commissioner Saqib Zafar, DCO Muhammad Saleem Afzal and AC City Bahawalpur Danish Zakir locked up their offices and headed to Lahore to participate in the strike against Ahad Cheema’s arrest. As a result, people with complaints from remote areas are facing severe problems.

The men, along with officers from the Works Department, went to Lahore to take part in the strike against the arrest of Cheema, who had been taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) three days prior. The strike was called in by officers belonging to the District Management Group (DMG) who demand his release.

Member National Assembly Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema said that arresting corrupt people in necessary. Rather than serving the people, these bureaucrats are looting the country. They should be held accountable, he expressed.

Cheema is a corrupt officer and people who are pleading his innocence are his accomplices. Every corrupt officer should be held accountable for his actions without any discrimination, he added.

MPA Dr Muhammad Afzal said that officials who govern welfare should focus on serving the people.

Former Tehsil Nazim Makhdoom Samiul Hassan Gillani said that if our country’s Prime Minister is answerable for his actions then nobody is above the law. There should be no unjust arrests, he stated. Former Tehsil Nazim Malik Zahid Mehmood Channar said that government officials take an oath and swear their loyalty to the state. Later, however, they become loyal to the leaders and become accomplices in their corrupt practices, he said.

Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s leader Javed Khan Dolatzai said that he pays tribute to the Chief Justice of Pakistan whose decisions have shrunken the circle against corruption. If a positive identity is to be stablished for Pakistan, then corruption needs to be eliminated across the board, he said.

Highlight: “Every corrupt officer should be held accountable for his actions without any discrimination,” said Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2018.