GUJAR KHAN, Feb 13: Union council nazim Sardar Azhar Shahzad has accused a revenue department official of “misappropriation and an underhand deal” in leasing out government land in the vicinity of the Sarwar Mohammad Hussain Shaheed stadium on G.T. Road.

Speaking at a press conference here on Thursday, Mr Shahzad alleged that the land was auctioned in a controversial way.

According to him, an advertisement published in an Urdu-language newspaper gave two dates – December 15 and 22 – for the auction.He claimed that on December 15 some parties reached the office of the deputy district officer (DDO) revenue to participate in the bidding, but they were told that the process would be carried out on December 22.

He alleged that on the fixed date, the site earmarked for construction of shops was ‘doled out’ to favourites for just Rs75000, which according to the nazim was “too low for the precious land”.

Mr Shahzad said no auction committee approved by the district coordination officer was constituted to conduct the proceedings, adding that the witnesses, who signed the auction agreement, were an official of the DDO revenue office and a sports officer.

The nazim said the sports officer, Mirza Javed, had reservations about the auction, as the successful bidders had already defaulted on the payment of rent for the stadium land.

He cited Mr Javed as saying that a huge amount owed by the party was written off by the DDO without any cogent reason and without adopting proper procedure.

Mr Shahzad said the sports officer had brought the matter into the notice of the higher authorities during the recent visit of a monitoring team of the chief secretary and the district coordination officer (DCO) in Rawalpindi. But ironically not only the misappropriation pointed out by him went unnoticed, but he was also suspended on Thursday for alleged misconduct.