rawalpindi - As many as 44 officers of local government departments of Rawalpindi have reportedly been arrested for millions of rupees corruption and malpractices.
Two Teshsil Municipal Officers (TMOs), a Tehsildar and a medical officer are also among the arrested, according to Anti-Corruption Department sources.
The sources said during last three months, many high officers of revenue, health, highways and other departments were arrested for taking bribe of millions of rupees from the citizens.
Eleven officers, including SDOs Tariq Mahmood Chattha, Kashif Ikram and Aneel Aziz (grdae-17) of highways department, Medical Officer Dr Imran (grade-17) of health department, TMO Rashid Minhas (grade-18), TOIs Imran Khalid, Azhar Majeed and Zahid Imran (grade-17), TMO Haider Ali Chattha (grade-18), Forest Officer Chaudhry Farooq Ahmed (grade-17), Service Centre In-charge Saqib Shahzad and Service Officer Ali Imran, and Tehsildar Chaudhry Amjad (Grade-17) of revenue department.
The sources said the land computerisation system was introduced to eliminate corruption, but this system had also fallen prey to the menace. Incidents of corruption of around Rs 2.5 million had come to the surface during the last three months. A citizen, Atif Kiyani, had reportedly accused In-charge Service Centre Murree Saqib Shahzad and Officer Ali Imran for charging Rs 5,000 per canal for verification of his 500 canal land and the two accused are now behind the bar.
Similarly, Tehsildar Chaudhry Amjad was blamed for taking Rs 12 million bribe from a citizen Haji Farid Khan for verification of three mutation cases of some 78 canal land in connivance with the patwari (sub-divisional revenue officer) concerned, the sources said. Likewise, SDOs Tarqi Mahmood, Kashif Ikram and Muhammad Aneel were arrested for illegally awarding land along Kohat Road on contract, they added.