DADU: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) police registered two FIRs against four officials of revenue and as many of irrigation departments on charges of financial misconduct in development projects and land records.

The first FIR was registered against Superintendent Engineer Zahid Hussain Qureshi, Executive Engineer Muhammad Faheem Somro of Rice Canal Larkana, Divisional Accountant Fayyaz Ahmed Qureshi, Mehar Subdivision SDO Abdul Rasool Junejo, and a contractor Mazhar Ali Kalhoro under Sections 161, 409, 465, 477-A, and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code along with Section 5(2) of the Act-II, 1947. The ACE Dadu had started conducting raids to arrest the officials, said officials.

Dadu ACE’s Circle Officer Ghulam Ali Bozdar said that the case was linked to funds allocated for the lining of Kadhan Canal in Mehar. An amount of Rs157.75 million had been allocated for the project under the Annual Development Program for fiscal year 2021-22 but the funds were allegedly embezzled and the work was left incomplete, he said.

He said that the case against the irrigation officials was registered after the investigation conducted in collaboration with Hyderabad’s Flood Emergency Requirements’ Chief Engineer Abdullah Bhurgari and a team of ACE Karachi had confirmed substantial corruption in the project.

The second FIR was filed against assistant commissioners of Mehar, Hajan Ujjan and Shabbir Rind, mukhtiarkars Khalid Hussain Loond and Mushtaq Ahmed (deceased) and private persons Pervaiz Ahmed and Mukhtiar Khoso under Sections 409, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, and 34 PPC, along with Section 5(2) of the Act-II, 1947.

The ACE officer said that ACE’s investigation had uncovered a scheme involving illegal conversion and sale of 57 acres of government land in Mehar. The revenue officials had allegedly colluded with land mafia to facilitate fraudulent land transactions, causing substantial financial losses to the government, he said, adding the officials were accused of creating fake land titles to aid the illegal activities.

Several raids had been conducted in different districts to arrest the suspects, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2024