The Chief Settlement Commissioner (CSC) of Punjab has uncovered a major scam whereby state land worth Rs470 million was sold for just Rs15,080, but has recommended disciplinary action only against the junior officials involved, The Express Tribune has learnt.
CSC Dr Nazir Saeed has recommended that the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) prosecute two patwaris and a naib tehsildar involved in the transfer of 377 kanals of state land to a private citizen at a fraction of their market price.
But he did not recommend any action against former district coordination officer Ali Amer Jan despite writing in his report that the then DCO’s actions “smell foul”.
The chief minister had set up a three-member committee including Dr Saeed, Bahawalpur additional commissioner Dr Nasir Bashir and Board of Revenue secretary (Settlements and Consolidation) Muhammad Iqbal – to investigate the “illegal allotment” of state land to Nasir Iqbal Jafri.
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, Board of Revenue member Raza Ali, on July 5, 1995, issued an order allowing Jafri to buy 377 kanals of state land in Fort Abbas tehsil, Bahawalnagar district, for Rs15,080. After his retirement, the Board of Revenue directed the deputy commissioner and settlement officer in Bahawalpur to scrutinise all of Ali’s orders since it was believed that he had committed gross irregularities. The case remained pending.
On June 1 this year, the district collector, who is the DCO, authorised the transfer of the land to Jafri. The committee said locals had complained that the date of the public hearing concerning the transfer was June 8, but Jan passed the order authorising the sale on June 1, just a day before his transfer.
On Jan’s orders, senior clerk Ghulam Ahmed Wattoo sent authorisation orders for the sale to the assistant commissioner (AC) of Fort Abbas on June 13, even though an appeal was pending with the additional commissioner of Bahawalpur.
Patwari Maqsood Ahmed entered the mutation in the land record on June 13, while patwari Riaz Amed Anjum, posing as a girdawar, verified the entry in place of the kanoongo, according to the committee’s report.
Naib tehsildar Muhammad Khalid Abbas sanctioned the mutation on the same day. “Such speedy processing ... speaks volumes of the corruption on the part of these officials,” says the report.
The revenue officials tampered with the record and colluded to sanction an illegal transfer of property, it says. The committee recommended that the case be referred to ACE. The revenue officials have been suspended.
The committee said that Fort Abbas assistant commissioner Abbas Asif Hayat Lodhi had failed to report the irregularities to senior officers, which suggested that he was involved in the scam, and so he should never be given a sensitive position in a government department. He has been made an officer on special duty.
The committee suggested that the land be transferred to the Schools Education Department under Section 30 of the Scheme for Management and Disposal of Available Urban Properties of 1977, and then be leased out and the revenue used to support the Danish School in Chishtian.
The committee did not recommend any action against Jan, despite implying that he was involved in the scam.
Jan denied passing such allotment orders. He said that he had not been summoned by the committee to testify.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31th, 2011.
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