SAHIWAL: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has booked five officials of the Buildings Department and two contractors for allegedly using substandard construction material in the construction of two police stations.

As per details, ACE registered two separate cases for allegedly using substandard construction material in the construction of Kameer and Ghaziabad Police stations against former SDO Muhammad Ali, SDOs Muhammad Arshad and Tariq Nadeem, Sub-Engineers Muhammad Saeed and Muhammad Hanif, and contractors Aslam Nawaz and Shah Hussain of the Chichawatni and Sahiwal buildings department.

The cases were filed on the complaint of Building Clerk Muzafar Qadir at the Sahiwal DPO Office.

The Kameer Police station was built with funds amounting to Rs65.54 million, while the Ghaziabad police station was constructed with Rs56.37 million funds. The funds

were allocated between the financial years 2014–15 and 2023–24.

The funds and the work was monitored by two different superintendents engineers of the buildings department.

Sources confirmed that an ACE Circle Officer had completed both inquiries, copies of which were available with

Dawn, prior to the registration of FIRs. The allegations in both FIRs were nearly identical, citing poor-quality roof materials, cracks appearing in building walls within six months of the completion of work, inferior doors and frames, defective water supply systems with multiple leakages, installation of tiles not prescribed in the contract, failure to furnish the upper portion of the building as per the design, and lack of proper fillings at several points within the structures.

It is noteworthy that both projects were executed under the supervision of the Sahiwal Buildings Office executive engineers. Moreover, the FIRs state that the role of the XEN must be further evaluated during the interrogation process.

ACE sources told Dawn that if evidence emerged showing the involvement of the SE or XEN in receiving kickbacks, either directly or through subordinates or contractors, the FIRs would be reframed. As of now, no arrests have been made in the case.

Newly-appointed DPO Usman Tipu said that the investigations were done before his appointment, however, the DPO office would fully cooperate in further investigations in the cases.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2025