Gujranwala         -            Transfer of RPO Gunjranwala who is considered a well-reputed officer on complaint of a political figure has raised many eyebrows.

Tussle between PTI female MPA and RPO Gujranwala has ended with transfer of the latter.

Regional Police Officer (RPO) Gujranwala Tariq Abbas Qureshi enjoys a good reputation and his sudden transfer left many questions unanswered about giving free hand to dedicated and honest police officers in the province.

Despite all support from local PTI leadership and business community, the RPO had to depart.

This tussle had started when a resolution was submitted in the Punjab Assembly by the female MPA Shaheen Raza, in which she alleged that Regional Police Officer Gujranwala Tariq Abbas Qureshi in collaboration with private mafia had signed an MoU for provision of residential plots to police personnel in Gujranwala on low rates. The complainant alleged in her resolution that RPO, as a government officer, had no right to sign such MoU without getting approval from the higher police authorities and the government. She further alleged that millions of rupees had been received by the landlord from police personnel while no development had been witnessed at the location.

When news of this resolution got viral on social as well as print media, local PTI leaders and ticket-holders reacted strongly against the PTI’s female MPA for filing this resolution in the Punjab Assembly against the Gujranwala Police Residential Scheme.

In a joint statement former MPA Chaudhry Nasir Cheema, ticket-holder Jamal Nasir Cheema, Chairman GDA Ali Ashraf Mughal, City General Secretary PTI Rizwan Aslam Butt, Mubashar Afzal Cheema, Ch. Siddique Meher, Ch. Tariq Gujar and others defending the RPO, said that they will not tolerate any obstacle to the project, and will meet with the party’s high command in this regard.

On the other hand, Punjab Assembly speaker has constituted a sub-committee under the leadership of Law Minister Raja Basharat to look into the matter and submit report in this regard.

A meeting of the sub-committee of the Special Committee No.10 of Punjab Assembly was convened by the convener of the sub-committee Yawar Abbas, in the Punjab Assembly to review the facts in the case of irregularities and illegal housing scheme in the Police Welfare Fund in Gujranwala, MPA Shaheen Raza, RPO Gujranwala, DC Sialkot and AC Tehsil Daska attended the meeting.

The complainant claimed in the meeting that the MOU relating to the scheme was illegal. She said the aforesaid landlord Shah Nawaz actually owned 14 acres of agricultural land while in agreement 29 acres had been disclosed which was a mis-representation. It was also noticed in the meeting that according to the records of DC Sialkot and AC Daska, the DC rate of agricultural land is Rs1. 6 million per acre, while in the above residential scheme land had been sold at Rs100 million per acre to police personnel.

It is pertinent to mention here that according to the MOU between RPO Gujranwala and landlord Shah Nawaz, all residential facilities in this scheme including water, electricity, gas supply and other facilities were responsibility of the buyers.

At the time of signing the MoU and selling the plots no NOC was obtained from the concerned government department and no other legal requirement was fulfilled. The DC Sialkot and AC Daska explained in the meeting that no legal sanction was got from the government for the residential scheme.

On the complaint of Shaheen Raza committee also directed the Gujranwala police to register a case against PTI leader Jamal Nasir Cheema for allegedly threatening the complainant for submitting the resolution against police officer. Though RPO had not got approval from the higher authorities for signing the MoU of a housing scheme but local political figures said that Tariq Abbas Qureshi had launched this scheme only for welfare of police personnel and there were some other reasons behind tabling of resolution by MPA Shaheen Raza against RPO.

Nadeem Afzal Chan in a tweet said transfer of an honest, people-friendly and dutiful police officer was unappreciable.