SHEIKHUPURA, Aug 21: Tehsil Nazim Mahmoodul Haq has got a case registered against nine local journalists, including the president and secretary-general of the press club, for their alleged interference in his official affairs.
Reports reaching here on Thursday revealed that the tehsil Nazim flared up after seeing reports of corruption published against him and his henchmen in the local press in the past few days.
An audit team, it is learnt, had refused to perform its duty at the tehsil council some time ago when it got the scent of corruption by the Nazim and his men.
A group of journalists accompanied by District Coordination Officer Qazi Ayub, who received complaints of overcharging at a local park on the Independence Day, raided the recreational spot and caught four henchmen of the tehsil Nazim charging Rs10 for entrance and Rs15 for parking. The four officials were identified as Rashid, Najmi, Sarwar and Afzal.
The DCO directed the B-division police station SHO to arrest the four officials and detain them after registering a case against them.
However, the tehsil Nazim got all the detainees released within two hours and later met DPO Nawaz Warraich to get a case registered against the journalists on the charge of snatching cash from the tehsil council staffers and interfering in his official affairs.
The DPO refused to lodge an FIR against journalists without going into the matter. Thereafter, the Nazim called on a CM inspection member, who helped him get a case registered against press club president Rana Sarwar, Azeem Ahmad Yazdani and seven other journalists.
The social circles have condemned the Nazim’s act of getting a case registered against the journalists and demanded the Punjab governor and the CM to initiate an impartial inquiry into the affair.
Meanwhile, District and Sessions judge Khan Talib Baloch, on a petition filed by a citizen Imran Rai, ordered registration of a case against four staffers of the TMA on the charges of overcharging and other irregularities.
The journalists at an emergent meeting held at the local press club deplored the Nazim’s step and urged the government higher-ups to order an inquiry into the incident. When contacted, Tehsil Nazim Mahmoodul Haq said the park, which was raided by the DCO, did not fall in his jurisdiction.
However, he said, he was bound to fight for the tehsil administration’s staffers.