LAHORE: Officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) called a recent action of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) unlawful, unethical and unjustified against several officers, including two women, following a ‘source report’ regarding illegal constructions.

Calling it a bid to harass officers that could lead to disrupting public service delivery, LDA personnel also protested the arrest of Chief Town Planner (CTP) Nadeem Akhtar Zaidi on the pretext of “not providing entire information regarding Khokhar Palace issue” and nominating him in a first information report (FIR) in another case without proof.

“They (ACE) neither called nor inquired me under the law before nominating me in the FIR registered on Feb 2 against 17 officers. How can we, especially women, work in an environment of harassment created in the department for the last few months,” a woman official, accused by the ACE along with other officers, told Dawn on Wednesday.

A team of the Lahore ACE had arrested Mr Zaidi on Saturday from the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry. On the same day, the ACE got a case registered against 17 officials, including the CTP, for allegedly being lenient towards illegal construction of various buildings.

“The CTP (Mr Zaidi) was just arrested by the ACE for not providing the information that the apex court didn’t even seek,” deplored LDA Vice Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Imran.

According to the FIR, the 17 officials are involved in unlawful constructions of commercial buildings in various parts of the city, including Canal Road (the stretch passing through Bahria Town) and Jail Road.

“We can register a case against anyone on a ‘source report’. This time, we are registering most of the FIRs on source reports because if we mention the name of the applicant/complainant in the FIR, he/she can be [handled] by the accused/defendant,” ACE’s Deputy Director (Lahore region) Shah Rukh Khan Niazi explained.

However, he couldn’t explain the logic behind registering FIR against the 17 officials without conducting an inquiry. “In FIR, we have mentioned illegal constructions of only eight buildings. These include a couple on Canal Road -- the road which was declared frozen for commercial activities, which is why any commercial activity there will be considered unlawful,” he added.

He said that in a detailed inquiry (about which Mr Niazi didn’t inform the booked suspects) the team unearthed 80 buildings constructed unlawfully on various roads falling in the LDA’s jurisdiction.

On the other hand, a legal expert termed the ACE’s action unjustified. “Under normal practice, the ACE doesn’t register an FIR on a report of anonymous sources (complainants). Similarly, before registration of any FIR, the ACE is required to summon the accused persons, incorporate their point of view in the report, evidence available and then recommend judicial action.”

The LDA’s town planning sections remained closed on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2019