As many as 44 officers of local government departments of Rawalpindi have reportedly been arrested for malpractices and corruption of millions of rupees.
Two Tehsil Municipal Officers (TMOs), a Tehsildar and a medical officer are also among the arrested, according to Anti-Corruption Department sources.
The sources said during the last three months, many high officers of revenue, health, highways and other departments were arrested for taking bribes 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 S Imran Khalid, S Azhar Majeed and S Zahid Imran (Grade 17), TMO Haider Ali Chattha (Grade 18), Forest Officer Chaudhry Farooq Ahmed (Grade 17), Service Centre Incharge Saqib Shahzad and Service Officer Ali Imran, and Tehsildar Chaudhry Amjad (Grade 17) of revenue department.
The sources said the land computerization 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.
A citizen, Atif Kiyani, had reportedly accused Incharge 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 were now behind the bar.
Similarly, Tehsildar Chaudhry Amjad was blamed for taking Rs 12 million bribes 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.
