Under pressure: Wildlife dept’s chief conservator caught in anti-corruption net

Forest dept employees to shut down offices in protest today

KARACHI: The chief conservator of the Sindh Wildlife Department, Riaz Ahmed Wagan, was arrested by the anti-corruption force on Wednesday.

Wagan, who came from his head office in Hyderabad to Karachi to attend a meeting, was arrested near Teen Talwar on Wednesday morning. His arrest was not declared until the next day. The anti-corruption police have also taken a five-day remand. Some officials claimed that a case of the illegal auction of a tree in the forest land in Thatta district has been lodged against Wagan.

The forest officers of the province feel he is being wrongly implicated and have decided to shut down their offices in protest. They claimed that the case has been lodged under political pressure.

Meanwhile, some officials said a few politicians, who have already taken over 14,000 acres of forest land in Thatta, Badin and Tando Muhammad Khan, are behind Wagan’s arrest.

“We are under huge pressure and are being directed to lease out forest lands, which is completely illegal,” a forest officer revealed. He said that most of the officials in his department are being harassed by influential people.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2015.