GUJRANWALA: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Tuesday decided to reopen for fresh inquiry cases against senior officials of various government departments that were decided or disposed of by a senior officer of the establishment a month before his retirement.

Sources said ACE technical branch in-charge, Deputy Director Rashid Hameed, who had retired from service a few days ago, had conducted inquiries against some senior officers of the provincial highway and buildings departments, the Gujranwala Development Authority, Public Health Engineering Department, tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs), the Water and Sanitation Agency and housing societies, on charges of corruption.

It was alleged that decisions in these inquiries were made out of merit and most officers involved in corruption were absolved of the charges.

When ACE Regional Director Rana Abdul Shakoor found out about it, he decided to reopen the cases of these officials for fresh inquiries and hinted that he would personally review them.

He also asked for notifications to be issued to the officials concerned.

Meanwhile, the ACE issued orders to register cases against four government officials on charges of forgery, misuse of powers and corruption on Wednesday.

ACE Regional Director Rana Abdul Shakoor told Dawn there were allegations against revenue department clerk Waqas Ahmed, gardawar Khalid Nawaz of Sialkot, Registry, Muharrar Khalid Pervaiz and patwari Sultan Ahmad of Kharian as well as stamp paper vendor Muhammad Arif of Gujranwala and after completing inquiries the ACE issued orders to register cases against them.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2016