GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has arrested the Gujranwala Municipal Corporation (GMC) chief officer Haider Ali Chattha, within 24 hours of his transfer from the post, which he had been occupying for long.

Official sources say that Chattha’s arrest was made late on Thursday night as soon as he came out of the DC Colony near Gujranwala Cantonment.

They say that the ACE had lodged a case against the arrested officer on different charges, including causing loss of millions of rupees to the provincial kitty allegedly through fake signatures of Hafizabad deputy commissioner (DC), who also held the charge of district council administrator, through corruption in development projects and other official expenditures.

The suspect was the chief officer of the Hafizabad district council back in 2022.

A case has been lodged against the suspect under sections 420, 468, 471 and 409 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 5/2/47 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Hafizabad DC Umar Farooq is the complainant in the case lodged with the Gujranwala ACE headquarters.

The sources say that more cases are likely to be lodged against Chattha as various inquiries are underway with regard to the alleged corruption in development schemes and severe irregularities in granting the lease of dozens of commercial buildings and shops owned by the GMC in different commercial areas of Gujranwala.

They add that a team of senior ACE officials had been investigating the arrested officer.

Earlier, on January 28, the Punjab local government and community development department (LG&CD) had transferred Chattha and directed him to report to the local government board in Lahore.

A BS-19 officer, Ahmed Bilal Makhdoom, was posted as GMC chief officer with immediate effect.

In November the last, the Gujrat Municipal Corporation (GtMC) chief officer Khaliq Daad Gara was arrested by the Gujranwala ACE in two different cases of corruption, misuse of authority and irregularities in development schemes.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has handed over the additional charge of Gujranwala Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) to Additional Deputy Commissioner (human resource) Shabeer Butt after the previous MD Ikramullah Chaudhary was removed from the post on the complaints of the ruling PML-N lawmakers from the district.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026