LAHORE – The Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) has become a corruption hub for which credit goes to the Punjab tourism secretary and Finance general manager who have caused losses and administrative setbacks under supervision of close aides of the Punjab CM, Pakistan Today has learnt.
In an attempt to control the damage, the Punjab CM, who is also chairman of the TDCP, has approved merger of the TDCP in the Punjab Forest Department on February 1. But Punjab Tourism Secretary and TDCP Acting Managing Director (MD) Aamir Ashraf Khawaja and Finance GM Shahzad Raza Syed who were involved in violating rules and ignoring merit have been left untouched without any action taken against them, a senior TDCP official told Pakistan Today.
“Both top guns of the TDCP have been facing two court proceedings for flouting rules and two adjournment motions have been submitted against them in the Punjab Assembly (PA). Students and teachers of the Institute of Tourism have also complained against them for dislocating the institute for their vested interest. But their close ties with high-ups are working as protected shields for them,” he explained.
According to sources, as the Punjab government could not appoint a permanent TDCP MD, the tourism secretary was given its additional charge six months ago. “Afterwards, things went downhill. The first destructive step was to shift the institute of tourism from Garden Town to Shadman,” sources said.
“The institute of tourism was located at the TDCP rental building in Shadman from 1996 to 2008. The annual profit of the institute stood at Rs 3 million until 2008. The institute was shifted to the Garden Town rental building of TDCP in 2009 spending Rs 5 million on up-gradation. The institute earned Rs 6 million from 2009 to 2010.
But the secretary tourism ordered bringing back the institute to the Shadman building on ground that his office situated at the Garden Town building was being disturbed,” sources added. Another TDCP official said that students and teachers protested against the decision and parliamentary secretary Khadija Umer of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) submitted an adjournment motion against the order in the PA during the last session.
But the secretary got his orders executed, he said. Another violation of rules done by the secretary tourism in connivance with the GM finance was making employees of TDCP deprived of a 50 percent rise in their salaries announced by the Punjab government in budget 2010-11. In the beginning, the secretary moved a summary of a 20 percent increase in salaries to the Punjab government instead of 50 percent without formal approval of the TDCP board of directors.
The minimal 20 percent raise, which was given to employees from July 1 to November, was also taken back from salaries of employees in December despite stay order by the court. Now a contempt of court petition has been field against them. During the last court hearing on January 21, another anomaly surprised everyone when the court came to know that the secretary tourism paid Rs 0.35 million for hiring services of Awais Aslam, a renowned lawyer and main contestant of the presidential slot of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
The court was taken aback to know that the TDCP was defending its case on ground that it was cash-strapped and had no money to pay the raise of even 20 percent to the employees but on the other hand it had hired an expensive lawyer. The court ordered the secretary to explain this contradiction on next hearing of the case on February 2.
A senior official said that although all permanent employees were being denied of their due right to get a 50 percent raise in salaries but the secretary and other GMs working on deputation had been withdrawing the same rise every month. He said that the MD also used TDCP funds for funeral and burial expenses of his father. So far, the amount had not been paid back into account of the TDCP, he added.
Finance GM Shahzad Raza Syed, who is considered the right-hand of the secretary tourism, had inked an agreement with NIB Bank to transfer Rs 40 million of TDCP Provident Fund Trust by taking alleged commission. According to rules, although the Punjab government had ordered to keep all funds in the Bank of Punjab (BoP) and NIB Bank was the lowest in banks ranking, agreement with NIB Bank proved to be the finance GM’s mala fide intention.
When TDCP employee’s trustee Muhammad Arif took a stand against the agreement and filed a writ petition for 50 percent raise in salaries of employees of TDCP, he was issued a show-cause notice for removal from services on January 6 despite the fact that on January 3, he quit the slot of employees’ trustee. Arif had now filed another writ petition for stay order against the show cause notices issued to him.
According to sources, the secretary tourism and finance GM also allegedly received commission in contract of the Changa Manga Resort with a private company. They also awarded a contract to their close relative for renovation of the Jallo Park Resort. Over the last two years, they failed to lease out the Jallo Park Resort causing losses worth millions of rupees to the TDCP annually.
Finance GM Shahzad Raza said that all allegations hold no ground and only some employees went to court on issue of raise in salaries and were behind the propaganda. He assured that as soon as the TDCP gained financial strength, raise in salaries of employees would definitely be given. Regarding the Jallo Park and Changa Manga resorts issues, he said that there was no discrepancy in contracts of the resorts and the Punjab CM had specially admired the renovation work and transparency in the projects.
