LAHORE: A controversial officer who is facing allegations of corruption, continues to hold a key position in the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Pakistan Today has learnt.
Adeel Pervaiz was recruited in LWMC as senior manager of a landfill site last year. The person in this position is responsible for controlling, monitoring and operating matter of the landfill sites of the department which is situated at Lakhodair area of Lahore. The authorities have claimed time and again that the said landfill site was state-of-the-art where solid waste was dumped in a sophisticated manner.
Sources said that Pervaiz was well liked by the MD of LWMC since his recruitment. They also said that since the new landfill site was inaugurated, LWMC failed to procure trash compactors and run the operation smoothly. The company had to rent machinery from private contractors. “As Pervaiz was holding such a key post, he used his authority for malpractices by obliging favourite contractors”, sources alleged, adding that he received bribes from contractors against this favour.
Sources further informed that everyone in the company was fully aware of Parvaiz’s malpractices, but the company’s top officials remained reluctant to take any action against him due to his strong ties with the LWMC MD. They said that after so many complaints surfaced against Pervaiz, Lahore’s Lord Mayor Col (rtd) Mubashar Javed took notice of the matter and ordered the MD to ‘disconnect’ him from the matters regarding landfill site. “Mayor said that Pervaiz was involved in taking bribe from the contractors on a daily basis and he will not bear such a person looking after matters the of landfill site,” they added.
According to sources, after the mayor’s orders, company’s senior management called back Pervaiz to the head office, from where he continued to look after matters of the landfill site.
A senior official in LWMC seeking anonymity told Pakistan Today that due to the inefficiency of Mr Pervaiz, matters of the landfill site have become worse as the purposes of this new site were not met. He revealed that the basic purpose of the site was to dump the waste in scientific ways but most of the waste can be seen dumped in an improper manner due to the inefficiency of the said officer.
This scribe tried to contact the LWMC MD Bilal Syed to take his comment regarding the matter but he was not available at his number. A text was sent at his number but he has not responded till the filing of this news.
Moreover, the scribe tried to contact company’s spokesman Ali Mazhar but he did not attend the call as well.