The Anti-Corruption Establishment of Punjab on Saturday arrested Punjab Assembly’s former deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari on charges of embezzling government land.
Reportedly, the provincial lawmaker’s arrested was confirmed by his cousin Shahab Mazari, who said that he was arrested while he was visiting his grandfather at the hospital.
According to Express News, ACE had summoned Mazari on October 11 on the same charges, but he failed to appear before it.
For his failure to comply with the summons, the department decided to file a case against him. Besides Dost Muhammad Mazari, Sher Muhammad Mazari and Moazzam Mazari were also summoned.
According to the report of Rujhan’s assistant commissioner, thousands of acres of land were embezzled by Mazari.
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Express News reported that on October 11, all revenue staffers, including the tehsildar of Rujhan were present in the office of ACE along with the records. ACE has seized all the records in the case.
A local news outlet had reported that the plaintiff in the case had alleged that the accused was using his influence to deprive him of the land whose lease he had won years ago. Moreover, it was reported that Manoj Kumar had accused Mazari of threatening him.
The former deputy speaker had denied these allegations, terming them politically motivated. In his defence, he had said that the assistant commissioner who had prepared the report about an alleged embezzling of thousands of acres of land had done so after he had exposed his own corruption.
Mazari had also said that it was his tribe’s history to be amongst donors of land to the government.
The former deputy speaker was elected to the office by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after it formed its government in Punjab in 2018.
However, he was removed from his position in July this year through a vote of no-confidence after he ruled in favour of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Hamza Shehbaz during the election for the chief minister.
The resolution that ousted Mazari from office was tabled by Raja Basharat.
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