RAHIM YAR KHAN: A ruling party MPA and Liaqatpur tehsil administration have locked horns over the issue of possession of a piece of state land where the lawmaker apparently intends construction of new building of Jinnah Auditorium.

According to local sources, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf local MPA Chaudhry Masood Ahmad approved Rs70 million fund in 2021-2022 budget for the establishment of new building of Jinnah Auditorium at the place of the old one which was already demolished.

The auditorium site is located on the premises of municipal committee (MC) compound and and had no access from the main road. On the front portion of the land there is the residence of tehsildar measuring 2.5 kanals, which is a prime location near the Rest House Chowk.

As the tehsildar’s residence had been declared dangerous for residing, it is presently occupied by a clerk of the assistant commissioner’s office, Roman Hasan.

The clerk, after shifting to the residence, got constructed a boundary wall around it with the permission of former AC Arshad Watoo.

However, the sources said, after allocation of budget for the new auditorium building, present AC Sarmad Ali Bhagat kept delaying the construction work for a short while.

The sources said one month back, when Liaqatpur Municipal Committee (MC) Chairman Rashid Rafiq Chaudhary took the charge, the MPA forced him to mark the land for the new auditorium building so that the contractor could start the construction work, immediately.

The sources said the MPA also requested RYK Deputy Commissioner (DC), Nauman Yousuf and AC Bhagat for getting the land vacated, but the officers did not bother.

On Dec 2, 2021, the MPA, and the chairman, in the presence of dozens of councillors allegedly got the boundary wall of the clerk’s house.

AC Bhagat and city DSP Ghulam Dastgir immediately reached the spot and stopped the demolition of wall.

Next day, a delegation of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) moved a written complaint to the DC against the demolition of their colleague’s house’s wall at the behest of the MPA. Following the complaint, the house’s boundary wall was again constructed by the MPA’s man, but a two kanal front portion of the land was excluded from it.

Later, MPA Masood also wrote a letter to Punjab chief minister, alleging the AC was involved in hatching conspiracies against the PTI government.

DC Nauman Yousuf told Dawn that the tehsildar’s residence land was owned by Punjab government and there was a proper procedure to get the state land for any public project.

He said the MC should follow the procedure and write a letter to Punjab government to get the land for the construction of auditorium.

MPA Masood did not reply to the calls made by this scribe for his version.

Sources said that the construction of auditorium was just a pretext to possess the land on the prime location, which might be latter put to commercial use by the MC.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2021