Shady deals: Dual enquiries on illegal tree felling yet to be made public

Trees worth Rs2.5m were cut down over the excuse of an auction but the case file has gone missing.

PESHAWAR:

Enquiries into how hundreds of decades-old trees were cut down along the 120 kilometre-long DI Khan-Mianwali route in 2012 have been swept under the carpet by the agriculture department, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Moreover, former the director-general for research (DGR), Dr Nazir Hussain Shah, one of the officials accused of being involved, is reportedly vying for the same post again.

A letter written by the staff of the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) of DI Khan states that the institute’s director, grade-17 official Abdul Majeed, and was the “root cause of the mismanagement”.

According to the staff, trees worth Rs2.5 million situated along a road in Rata Kulachi were chopped down in April 2012 during Majeed’s tenure on the pretext of an auction, and the case file has reportedly gone missing.

According to a source within the ARI DI Khan, two ARI officers were suspended for raising the issue of the trees with the agriculture department, and Majeed was suspended to appease the angry staff.

The staffer claimed that the trees were felled between April 22 and 23, 2012, and the wood sent to a secret location during the night. “The field staff informed the officers on April 23 and they rushed to the site. However, when they raised the issue with their superiors, they were transferred to Bannu and Swat by official orders in May that year,” he said.

The insider added another grade-17 officer, Akram Khan, took over as director but he too stayed silent on the issue and refrained from exposing the officers.

“Khan was also one the culprits involved in the illegal logging of trees,” alleged the staffer.

He claimed that former DGR Dr Nazir Hussain Shah ordered the first enquiry into the incident. The enquiry committee was, however, made up of only one person: Khisro Kaleem, who is a senior research officer at the Veterinary Research Institute, Peshawar. “Kaleem was hand-in-glove with Shah and the fate of this enquiry has yet to be made public despite the fact that ARI officials provided him proof in the form of videos,” he claimed.

The staffer claimed Shah was later removed from his post over the misuse of power and involvement in corruption cases. “It is beyond our understanding why the same person is trying to become the DGR again,” he added.

DG Agriculture Qaish Bahadar also ordered another enquiry but the findings have yet to be made public, added the ARI employee.

Another source within the institute said the enquiries need to be made public and former DGR Nazir Hussain Shah and former directors Abdul Majeed and Muhammad Akram should be taken to task.

Another letter sent to then-agriculture secretary Afsar Khan in April 2012 requested the appointment of a permanent director and a committee to investigate mass-scale anomalies in the institute. The letter was signed by 10 ARI scientists and copies were sent to the former agriculture minister and chief secretary as well.

The letter, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, states that out of 299 trees, around 100 were sold without holding an auction. “Another lot of trees were sold illegally by another party in the residential colony at ARI. There were no checks by the authorities and the money made from the wood was not deposited in the national exchequer,” the letter adds.

Yet another letter dated April 23, 2012, sent to the ARI director, states that experimentally grown sugarcane and pea crops suffered damages because the tractor-trolley carrying the wood ran over the fields. Signed by eight ARI staffers, the letter also requested the director to investigate the continuous felling of trees.

For his part, Kaleem, the official who conducted the first enquiry, said the investigation had been conducted and completed in a transparent manner. However, he declined to disclose any of its findings.

Former DGR Dr Nazir Hussain Shah said the advertisement for the auction of 299 trees was posted and Rs1.3 million from the sale was deposited in the treasury. “It was a record auction done in a fair manner,” he claimed.

Shah denied involvement in the case of illegal tree felling and said he worked for the betterment of the department. “My proposal for the DGR position has been pending for the past one year due to political interference as certain elements don’t want me to become the DGR despite my honest track record,” Shah said.

The issue of illegally felling trees was also raised by former MPA Khalifa Abdul Qayum. An official letter written by Qayum to former agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan dated November 6, 2012, on this issue is available with The Express Tribune. However, the letter elicited no response.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.