GUJRANWALA: A ruling party MPA and some other office-bearers of the party are opposing the abrupt transfer of Deputy Commissioner Shoaib Tariq Waraich but so far they are unable to get the order reversed.

Mr Warriach, it is believed, was transferred for issuing a notice to demolish an illegally-constructed petrol pump on state land by PML-N MPA Iqbal Gujjar’s family. His son Ahsan Jameel Gujjar, who remained in media limelight during the Pakpattan DPO transfer case taken up by the apex court, allegedly used his connections in the PM House and got the official removed on last Friday. The DC was yet to relinquish the charge till Monday night.

Following the transfer, MPA Shaheen Raza and other PTI people came in the open to defend the deputy commissioner and urged the chief minister to cancel the transfer order. They said Mr Warriach was a brave officer who had taken bold steps against the land grabbers and retrieved more than 5,000 kanal state land from influential people, including former minister Khurram Dastgir Khan.

MPA Ch Iqbal Gujjar said in a press conference that the petrol pump belonged to his son Hassan Sultan and it was built on land allotted to them by the government of Pakistan in 1947 when they migrated from India. He said they had got a stay order from the court against the demolition plan. He denied that his family was behind the DC’s transfer.

Meanwhile, Punjab government spokesman Dr Shehbaz Gill has said the transfer of Gujranwala Deputy Commissioner has been made purely on merit.

He claimed the government was not satisfied with the performance of the DC. “During the recent sit-in, a question mark was raised on the performance of the DC and the judiciary also expressed its dissatisfaction over his performance. Giving any other impression to this transfer will be totally baseless and beyond facts and the Punjab government fully believes in merit and performance,” the spokesman claimed.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2018