KARACHI, Feb 24: At least 12 officials of the revenue department were wanted in the illegal allotment of lands, besides many front-men of the sacked revenue minister, Imtiaz Shaikh, said a senior official of the Anti-corruption Establishment.

"We are collecting information about their misdeeds and have seized the revenue record for a thorough examination to determine the intensity of mal practices," the official said on condition of anonymity.

However, sources said that many DDOs had been picked up for questioning with regard to the alleged tampering with the revenue record. Many officials and clerical staff were also being grilled in this regard.

The clouds of fear hovered round the revenue office near the Civic Centre where the office of the EDO Revenue, Wasim Ahmed, also appeared deserted. Sources said that the EDO, who is facing harsh questioning, was likely to be transferred.

The ACE had registered five FIRs against front-men of Imtiaz Shaikh and many officials of the land utilization and revenue department of the City government. Six officials and two front men have already been picked up.

They are being extensively grilled for tampering with the revenue record and allotment of precious land at throw-away prices, without completing legal formalities.

Official sources said that the FIRs were registered under sections 161/420/468/471/31 PPC which related to taking illegal gratification, forgery, fraud, tampering with official record/documents, etc.

They said that the ACE police had raided the offices and houses of the wanted officials but no further arrest had been made. They said that the entire land in question was being covered under the investigation.

The sources in the revenue department said that most of the rooms were locked and the registrars' offices viz. Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar were lying closed.

People were facing hardship in getting their allotments registered. They said that the ACE director had visited the revenue offices near Civic Centre and questioned some officials present there.

Besides, the absence of DDOs, who had been assigned the task of issuing domicile and permanent residence certificates also, was badly affecting the routine work at their offices. Some of the DDOs are in custody whereas some others are not attending their offices to avoid being questioned by the ACE officials, it was observed.