RR probe seeks action against officials

Report says first committee wrongly implicated former Rawalpindi commissioner Gulzar Shah

RAWALPINDI:

The new probe report regarding the Rawalpindi Ring Road project scandal has recommended disciplinary action against former Punjab chief secretary Jawad Rafique and former commissioner Rawalpindi Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah — who were members of the initial fact-finding committee — for wrongly implicating former Rawalpindi commissioner Muhammad Mehmood and others without hearing them.

Around 13 bureaucrats, including former commissioner Muhammad Mehmood and former land acquisition collector Waseem Ali Tabish, have been acquitted in the scandal, according to an order issued by the Establishment Division earlier.

The new report declaring the first fact-finding committee’s report on the scandal as malicious, it has been recommended to initiate disciplinary action against the initial committee members.

Former Rawalpindi commissioner Capt (retd) Muhammad Mehmood had raised objections to the charge sheet of the first fact-finding committee and later former prime minister Imran Khan tasked grade-22 officer Muhammad Ali Shahzada to investigate the scandal afresh.

The present government had handed over the investigation to Civil Services Academy Director General Omar Rasool, who completed the probe in 60 days. The new report comprising three volumes and containing 882 pages had also recommended the acquittal of Muhammad Mehmood. On the basis of the new report, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif acquitted Muhammad Mehmood.

According to the report, the new investigation looked at all the evidence and heard 30 witnesses. The new investigation found no evidence of corruption in the Ring Road project. It said that Imran Khan's close associates exercised their influence on the initial fact-finding committee.

The new investigation has revealed that former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar had approved the change in the alignment of the Ring Road project. The alignment change cost the government Rs30 billion, it said. It said that on the previous fact-finding report, the Punjab Anti-Corruption Department hastily registered an FIR and arrested former commissioner Capt (retd) Muhammad Mehmood and land acquisition collector Wasim Tabish, who have been granted bail by the Lahore High Court on lack of evidence.

In the first fact-finding report, former commissioner Muhammad Mehmood had been accused of involvement in 20 corruption cases in collusion with housing societies and receiving kickbacks.

The report revealed that the first fact-finding report was prepared without hearing former commissioner Muhammad Mehmood. It said that other members of the fact-finding committee, former Additional Commissioner General Jahangir Ahmed and former Rawalpindi deputy commissioner Capt (retd) Anwarul Haq wrote dissenting notes but committee convener and former commissioner Gulzar Hussain Shah sent the report to the Chief Minister's Office without making the dissenting note part of the report which was illegal.

The report said that former commissioner Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah did not follow any rules and regulations issued in the notification issued for the fact-finding committee to the preparation of the report. In the Ring Road project, it said, Shah framed allegations without listening to other departments, compiled the TORs of the committee himself and prepared the report after conducting the investigation himself, which was an illegal act.

The report said that no witness was brought against former commissioner Rawalpindi Muhammad Mehmood.

The report also expressed serious concerns over the conduct of the then Punjab chief secretary Jawad Rafique. It said that the chief secretary also appeared before the new committee and admitted that he was under severe pressure due to which the rules were not followed.

The report said that 30 people were heard in the investigation and for the first time, Muhammad Mehmood, the main accused in the Ring Road scandal, was allowed to present his case and all the evidence and statements were cross-examined.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2022.