MUZAFFQARGARH: Two senior officers of the Muzaffargarh district council were arrested by an Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) team on Tuesday after the Lahore High Court, Multan bench, cancelled their interim bail.

The Muzaffargarh ACE team arrested former chief officer Rai Zaffar and former finance officer Chaudhary Tanvir Alam for their alleged corruption of more than Rs400 million through bogus schemes. The case was registered against them under sections 5(2), 47, 420, 468, 471, 477, and 477A of the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Anti-Corruption Police Station of Muzaffargarh on Jan 2.

In June 2022, former deputy commissioner Ali Annan Qamar wrote a letter to the Dera Ghazi Khan ACE for action against the chief officer, finance officer, and audit officer of the district council. However, these officials approached the ACE director general in Lahore and managed to stop the action.

Sources said that the ACE took notice of the matter and ordered the Muzaffargarh circle officer to investigate into the scheme. Circle Officer Waseem Khan Leghari took all the records of the district council. The investigation revealed that Rs450 million had been embezzled in the name of alleged development works in the district council. A Chief Minister Inspection Team (CMIT) also wrote a letter to the ACE director for action against the irresponsible officials.

A district council official told Dawn that four former district accounts officers and 16 contractors were involved in the mega corruption.

The circle officer said that he and his technical teams probed the embezzlement and registered a case against the chief officer, finance officer, audit officer, and contractors. Some officials were arrested last month and are currently in jail. Some locals have complained to the chief minister that development schemes in their constituencies never started. The CMIT, led by chairman Khurram Iqbal, visited Muzaffargarh on Nov 22, 2022, to investigate these allegations.

The CMIT, led by Chairman Khurram Iqbal, visited the constituencies of PP-276, PP-277, PP-278, and PP-279. However, the district council administration was unable to provide any evidence that the projects in these constituencies had been completed.

The CMIT team also contacted the former audit officers, finance officers, and chief officers of the district council. These officials had all been transferred, but the CMIT team believes that they may have been involved in the embezzlement.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2023