Transparency concern: Arts Council director transferred ‘to ensure fair inquiry’

Ateeq Ahmed is facing abuse of authority charges.

FAISALABAD:

Faisalabad Arts Council resident director Mian Ateeq Ahmad was on Friday transferred to Lahore in, what the Information and Culture Department additional secretary said was, an attempt to ensure transparency in an inquiry underway against him. 

Ateeq Ahmad has been asked to give the charge of his office to Director Public Relations Department Muhammad Abid Kamalvi, who was earlier serving as the additional director of the FAC.

The transfer order is meant to ensure transparency in an inquiry against Ateeq on complaints of abuse of power. These include FAC watchman Shahid’s complaint that he had been brutally beaten up by Ateeq on the pretext that the protocol for some of his guests was not up to the mark.

Ahmed, however, rejected the suggestion that he had been transferred out of Faislabad. He said an order of transfer issued by the Information and Culture secretary was revoked at a later stage.

“I have been told that the transfer orders have been cancelled. He has asked me to continue working as the resident director,” he added. He refused to identify the official who had conveyed the later order.

The decision follows a fact-finding visit to the FAC by Information and Culture Dept Additional Secretary Syed Tahir Hamdani. Hamdani said the visit was not linked to the probe underway against the former director by a team selected by the Faisalabad commissioner and the district coordination officer.  He said he had talked to Ateeq Ahmed and the watchman and forwarded their statements to the secretary. “It was a fact-finding visit,” he said. “Transfers and postings are a routine matter. Ateeq’s transfer to Lahore should not be considered as a punishment,” he added.

The additional secretary said a probe was underway in the matter by a team appointed by the commissioner and the DCO.

Watchman Shahid had on April 4 threatened to commit suicide if action was not taken against the then resident director for his alleged maltreatment. Shahid, who had climbed up the FAC building, had been persuaded by Additional Commissioner Shafqat Ullah Mushtaq and other officials to abandon the idea of a suicide. Shahid had accused Ateeq Ahmad of insulting him in front of other staff.

Ateeq Ahmed, however, denied that he had beaten Shahid. He said he had once reprimanded him over violation of some rules, adding that the watchman might have borne him a grudge. “I was at a wedding at the time when he staged that drama on the FAC premises,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2012.