LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Thursday arrested an additional deputy commissioner, a former brigadier and six other people who are alleged to have fraudulently transferred 1,250-kanal state land in Kasur.

“ADC Aamir Aqiq, who also remained personal staff officer to the chief minister, transferred 1,250-kanal state land to his relatives in connivance with a former brigadier (Ibrahim Khalid), a tehsildar and patwaris on low rates,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told a news conference here.

Flanked by the ACE chief, retired Brig Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, Sanaullah said another suspect Salman Munawar was a relative of politician Munawar Manj.

“Laying hand on a bureaucrat shows Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s zero-tolerance policy on corruption. Currently, many projects worth Rs1,000 billion are under way in the province and there is no corruption at the government level,” he said.

The ADC committed the fraud during his tenure (2012-13) in Kasur.

Mr Ranjha said the government had retrieved the land and would submit the challan of the case in court in a couple of weeks.

Initially, the accused had got bail but it was cancelled after which they were arrested.

PFA CASE: The ACE said it had registered a case against an assistant and a driver of former Punjab Food Authority director operations Ayesha Mumtaz.

“We have received a corruption complaint against an assistant and a driver of Ayesha Mumtaz. After initial investigation we have registered a case against them. There is no complaint against Ayesha Mumtaz,” Ranjha said.

Meanwhile, Rana Sanaullah advised Ms Mumtaz to distance herself from the suspects and let the ACE complete its probe.

Answering a question about alleged irregularities of Rs1.92 billion in the metro project as pointed out by an audit report, Sanaullah said: “These are audit objections and the Public Accounts Committee will review them.”

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017