GUJRANWALA: Deputy Commissioner Shoaib Tariq Warraich on Friday refused to leave charge of his office when he got an abrupt transfer notice.

Sources told Dawn that the deputy commissioner resisted the government action which had been taken on political grounds.

Mr Warraich had sent a notice of demolition of an influential politician’s petrol pump on GT Road during the anti-encroachment drive. This led to complaint by the politician and transfer of the deputy commissioner, said sources.

ARREST: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Friday arrested four officials of the district accounts office of Gujrat for embezzlement of Rs16.7 million.

ACE Director Fareed Ahmad told reporters that the Gujrat district jail superintendent had written a letter to the corruption watchdog claiming that jail officials informed him that Sohail Arshad, a clerk of district jail, in connivance with accounts officials sent illegal gratification in their accounts.

The inquiry committee detected embezzlement of Rs16.7 million.

PROTEST: The owners and workers of kilns on Friday protested against closure of their workplaces.

Kiln owners Tariq Mahmood, Babar Warraich, Seth Majid and others said they had been forced to close down their kilns and harassed through registration of cases.

They said a large number of people had been rendered jobless due to the decision.

They demanded that the government should take other measures to ward off smog instead of depriving the poor of their source of livelihood.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2018