July 08, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 11, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 7: A former officer of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has urged senior military officers to take notice of the actions of some officers of the station headquarters and the Cantonment Board, Jhelum who, he alleged, were intimidating, harassing and demanding unethical business gains.

Khalid Khawaja, a former squadron leader, also filed a lawsuit against officers of the 23 Division and the Jhelum Cantonment, seeking a stay against illegal takeover, demolition and closure of a business venture. The court has so far held two hearings of the case and has fixed July 11 as the next date of hearing.

The officer informed the court and the military authorities that he had been forced to close down a compressed natural gas station — his joint venture with 23-division Jhelum — that was yielding about Rs600,000 per month to the 23 Division. The officer also filed complaints to the Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Corp Commander Rawalpindi, and director-generals of Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence.

He said the 23 Division had leased out a 2,200-square yards of land on the G.T. Road, Jhelum, to set up and operate a CNG filling station in August 2000 on a 30-year lease for 10 per cent share of the total gas sales that translated into a monthly earning of Rs560,000 to the 23 Division. Earlier, it was getting only Rs4,000 a month for the same piece of land.

“The present state of affairs is the culmination of events initiated by senior officers of Headquarters of the 23 Division to intimidate us and our workers to ensure that we submit to their unjustified and unethical demands,” he wrote to the vice-chief of the army staff.

“Our workers were intimidated directly and through the local police and personnel of the FIU,” despite timely payment of dues, he said that it was done to force him to revise the terms and conditions of the lease agreement, which was binding for 30 years.

He said on his refusal to revise the agreement, the 23 Division prevailed upon Cantonment Board, Jhelum, to issue a notice to demolish the CNG station, although the area did not fall in its jurisdiction. He said the army officers were not allowing him to hire CNG station staff on the pretext of security clearance.

He also complained that in addition to two serving soldiers of 60-EME Battalion assigned to ‘monitor’ the CNG station, since June 16, 2006, a whole team of personnel of FIU remained stationed on the premises of the CNG station all day to ‘ensure’ that workers were not hired to operate the station.

The plaintiff requested the court and senior military officers to stop the 23 Division and cantonment board from demolishing, taking over or closing down the CNG station under any pretext.