Probe recommends removal of official over corruption
PHOTO: FILE
A probe body has recommended sacking the building checker of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) in an alleged corruption scandal pertaining to the illegal construction of 800 buildings.
During a survey earlier, some 800 illegal residential and commercial buildings were found to be constructed in the jurisdiction of the RCB.
The building plans of these structures were either unapproved or, in some cases, commercial buildings were built in place of residential buildings.
After the corruption scandal surfaced, Revenue Superintendent Rana Saleem was appointed as the inquiry officer, who probed the matter for three months. The inquiry has been recommended sacking building checker Yasir Siraj from the post and initiating proceedings action against the other 25 officials.
After the alleged corruption surfaced, RCB Executive Officer Omar Farooq Ali removed 26 officials including building checkers and lower division clerks from the building control department through an office order issued on August 25, 2021.
They included Atta-ur-Rehman, Chaudhry Jawad, Arshad Mahmood, Yasir Siraj, Saleem Ahmed, and LDCs including Abdul Ghaffar, Abdul Rafiq Khan, Haris Ali, Agha Muhammad Waqar, Owais Zahoor, Waqas Hussain, Ahmad Ali, Tahir-ul-Amin, UDCs Muhammad Waqas, Tax Collector Khurram, Abdullah Ejaz, Jahanzeb Mughal, Waheed Akhtar, Tauqeer Ahmad Qureshi, Naveed Aslam, Muhammad Asghar, Zafar Hayat, Bilal Ali, Rehmatullah, Bashir Ahmed and Bilal.
Sources said that these officials have been summoned to record their statements before the inquiry officer. The inquiry report will soon be presented to the competent authority.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2021.