KARACHI: Representatives of civil society have expressed concern over the re-arrest of a former chief conservator of forest and called for an impartial investigation into the allegations levelled against him.

Former chief conservator of forest Riaz Ahmed Wagan was on bail when he was arrested by the anti-corruption police for the second time early this month in connection with a case pertaining to the Benazir Safari Park project in Boharki forest located in Badin district.

The project, sources said, was initiated by former speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and former home and forest minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza.

“The government action is a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of a respected citizen and government official as a due process of law under the Constitution hasn’t been followed,” said a statement issued by the members of civil society on Thursday.

According to the statement, the case against Mr Wagan should have been investigated through a departmental inquiry first and then sent to the ant-corruption department.

They contended that the officer had unjustifiably been implicated in what they called a politically fabricated case to teach him a lesson for his refusal to comply with illegal commands of higher-ups.

The statement, among others, is endorsed by Mohammad Ali Shah, Jami Chandio, Nasir Panhwar, Prof Qalander Shah, Prof Mushtaque Mirani, Gul Mohammed Umrani, Dr Arfana Mallah, Aijaz Sindhi, Advocate Ali Palh, Mukhtiar Abbasi, Mustafa Mirani, Mohammed Khan Samoo, Ashfaque Soomro, Ali Akbar Rahimoo, Zain Dau­dpoto, Zahid Dharejo and Ayaz Buriro.

They appealed that the charges should be probed at the departmental level by an impartial civil servant of unimpeachable reputation and not by the anti-corruption establishment, which, they said, had lost its credibility.

The government, in their opinion, should focus its efforts to remove illegal occupation of forest land and increase forest cover in Sindh, which, they said, had already been significantly reduced.

“The provincial government must draw up a forest conservation plan immediately to combat mass-scale deforestation before the province completely loses its natural forests. It must declare the remaining forest land as protected and get the entire forest land measured through the geographical information system,” they said.

It might be recalled that Mr Wagan, along with some other forest department officials, was earlier taken into custody by the anti-corruption police last year and later released on bail. At that time, the arrest was widely condemned and protests were taken out by forest department employees and villagers in various districts.

During his two-year tenure as Sindh’s top head of the forest department, the sources said, Mr Wagan had been under immense pressure from some powerful individuals who wanted him to cancel previously leased forest lands and transfer them in their favour in violation of the Sindh High Court orders relating to the recovery of 80,000 acres of forest land that had been leased illegally.

The sources said that he managed to recover 15,000 acres of land and cases pertaining to the illegal lease of forest land were reduced significantly during his tenure.

Environmentalists regard political pressures on forest department officials to convert forest land into agricultural land or use it for other purposes as one of the biggest threats to the depleting forest cover and associated wildlife in the province and it is generally believed that Mr Wagan is being victimised for taking action against influential land-grabbers.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015

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