September 28, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 15, 1428

TOBA TEK SINGH, Sept 27: A revenue patwari has gone underground after depriving buyers of plots in a housing scheme of Rs50 million by issuing fake ownership documents.

Reports said dozens of people purchased plots in the scheme entitled `Punjab Government Employees Cooperative Housing Society’ opposite the local district headquarters hospital on Toba-Chichawatni road.

Those who claimed to be owners of the scheme collected more than Rs50 million from the unsuspecting buyers who were in return issued fake ownership documents by the patwari concerned, Nazar Muhayyuddin.

To lend credibility to the scheme, the gang also managed to got the `sale deeds’ registered with the revenue officer concerned.

The buyers came to know about the fraud when they approached the revenue officer concerned for getting attested the transfer deeds issued by the patwari to find out the documents to be fake as they were not entered in the official record.

The buyers lodged a complaint with the DCO, Nawazish Ali, who directed District Officer (revenue) Shakil Ahmad to probe the matter. The DO, after finding the patwari guilty of the fraud, ordered Deputy District Officer (revenue) Aftab Thaheem to take action against the accused.

The DDO(R) wrote to Faisalabad anti-corruption additional director to register a case against the patwari and arrest him. However, despite the passage of a month, the ACE officer took no action against the patwari. The anti-corruption officials claim that as none of the affected buyers had appeared to record a statement, the department could not take any action against the patwari.

On the other hand, the buyers allege that because of the delaying tactics used by the department, the accused managed to go underground. Some of them believe the patwari had fled abroad to avoid arrest.

SEMINAR: Participants of a seminar held here on Thursday discussed the role of local councils and objections being raised against them ahead of general elections. The seminar was organised by two NGOs — Workers and Peasants Councillors Network (WPCN) and Sangat Foundation.

Speakers included lawyers, teachers and elected representatives. Some of them criticised the role of local councils, saying if they continued to function during election process they might become a tool for using funds in favour of ruling party candidates.

However, a majority of them said local councils should be allowed to complete their term, proposing that their funds be seized during election process. The house finally passed a resolution, urging the government to not to suspend the local councils.

Advocate Sajid Ali, Sadaqat Sardar, Azra Roohi, Begum Rashida Perveen, union council nazim Tahir Sattar, PTCL trade union leader Majeed Salik and Wapda employees’ union leader Mustafa Paaris spoke on the occasion.