SAHIWAL: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) booked three officials of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and arrested two of them for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs1.1m from a contractor for issuance of a work permit.

The ACE team, led by Circle Officer Sohaib Qasir and accompanied by Judicial Magistrate Mushtaq Hussain Junjua, conducted a raid and apprehended Muhammad Azim, sub-divisional clerk, and his subordinate Rizwan Farid who allegedly received the amount on behalf of Exen Muhammad Nadeem. Both were caught with signed notes and a cheque in their possession with the name of Nadeem.

Sohail Ahmed, a resident of Mir Dada Mafi, Noor Shah, and a contractor registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council, had won a contract and approached Exen Nadeem for release of a work permit.

Sohail alleged that Nadeem demanded Rs1.1m bribes through his cronies. He claimed to have paid Rs1m to Nadeem and Rs100,000 to Azim in the presence of a witness, Muhammad Sultan, on May 25.

Despite paying the demanded amount, Sohail was not issued the work permit. Instead, he alleged that the PHE staff demanded an additional Rs700,000. Sohail then approached the ACE for registration of a case. Under an operation, Azim allegedly received Rs200,000 in cash and a cheque worth Rs500,000 from a private bank. The ACE team conducted the raid at that moment and arrested both the officials while receiving money.

Basharat Nabi, the regional director of ACE, confirmed that the cheque of a commercial bank was in the name of Nadeem.

A case has been registered against the suspects on the complaint of Sohail by ACE.

encounter: An alleged dacoit was killed while two of his accomplices managed to escape in an encounter with the Crime Control Department near village 112/7-R of Pakpattan tehsil on Thursday night.

As per reports, CCD Inspector Asif Nawaz was on routine mobile when he received a call that three outlaws were looting citizens by erecting a fake police checkpoint near village 110/7-R. The CCD team rushed to the scene, where the suspects allegedly opened fire upon seeing them. A crossfire lasting about 15 minutes ensued, after which police claimed to have found one suspect dead. He was later identified as Tanveer, a resident of village 108/7-R.

CCD claimed to have recovered a pistol, a motorcycle, and mobile phones and said that two accomplices of the deceased suspect managed to run away in the dark. CCD registered a case on the complaint of Inspector Asif Nawaz.

In a separate incident, the Ghala Mandi Police claimed to have arrested an injured drug trafficker after an encounter near village 86/9-L.

The injured drug seller was identified as Qamar Alias Qamri, a resident of Dispensary Road in Sahiwal city.

SI Muhammad Hussain told Dawn that they received information that drugs were being transported near the Lower Bari Doab Canal. He claimed that police raided the site and two drug sellers opened fire on them.

Later, he claimed the police found an injured drug seller while his companions fled away. Police shifted the injured alleged drug seller to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2026