LDA suspends three employees

Show-cause notices to all three officials have been issued

LAHORE: Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General Muhammad Usman Moazam has suspended three officials for giving VIP protocol to land grabber Malik Mansha Khokhar, alias Mansha Bomb, in violation of a ban imposed on Khokhar’s entry in city developer’s office.

Suspended officials are Assistant Director Zahid Aziz, Assistant Naeemullah and Naib Qasid Qasim Abbas for facilitating the land grabber and his son’s entry in the LDA One Window Cell in Johar Town.

A spokesman of the authority said that Aziz left his office to receive Khokhar at LDA building’s main gate. Though security officials tried to bar their entry, the said officials of the authority used their position and ignored security staffs’ instructions. Moazam has also issued show-cause notices to all three officials under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act 2006, he added.

Khokhar’s name impinged late last year when former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ordered his arrest while hearing a case against land grabbing. Justice Nisar asked the police, “Who is this Mansha Bomb?” Police told the court that he is a person running a large land grabbing ring in Johar Town and has occupied a huge chunk of land.

Police told the apex court that whenever they tried to proceed against him they had to face serious pressure from political circles.

Former CJP asked police who made these calls, on which the superintendent police pointed to another man standing in the courtroom – Malik Karamat Khokhar, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) parliamentarian.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2019.