Protest demonstration: MDA workers say minister crossed limit

Say the minister threatened and beat up a land officer on duty.


Our Correspondent January 11, 2014

MULTAN:


Hundreds of Multan Development Authority (MDA) employees on Friday staged a protest demonstration against Minister for Prisons Chaudhry Abdul Waheed Arain accusing him of threatening and beating up an MDA worker.


The protesters walked from MDA’s office to the DCO’s office and demanded an immediate inquiry into the matter.

Land Officer Ikram Baloch told the media that he was asked to supervise an operation against encroachments at Vehari Square by the district coordination officer on Thursday.

He said during the operation, the provincial minister and his security guards intervened and told him to stop.

Baloch alleged that Arain and his guards beat him up when he refused. He said the minister’s guards were armed and had threatened to kill him.

The land officer said he would resign if “action was not taken on merit against the minister.”

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Baloch said he had submitted a report to the MDA director general.

MDA Employees’ Union president Ghaffar Shahid told The Express Tribune that 30 witnesses would be presented as key witnesses in the inquiry.

“There are videos that show the provincial minister threatening the land officer,” he said.

Arain told The Express Tribune that allegations against him were “baseless.” He said he never went to the site. “I did talk to the land officer but in support of the operation,” he said.

He accused Baloch of extorting bribes from the poor. The minister said Baloch took monthlies from the people involved in encroachments.

Meanwhile, Multan National Labour Alliance president Ghazi Ahmed Hasan has threatened to boycott all operations against encroachments if a fair inquiry was not held.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2014.

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