GUJRAT, May 26: A tussle between patwaris and the Gujrat assistant commissioner is still continuing as six more patwaris, including the Anjuman Patwarian tehsil president, were booked for stealing the official record of patwar offices while the strike of patwaris has completed four weeks.
A tug-of-war between patwaris and Assistant Commissioner Wasif Basheer Khokhar had started about six weeks back when the police booked two senior patwaris Rao Zafar and Malik Muneer on charges of issuing fake property documents.
The AC had also transferred around 18 patwaris who had been occupying attractive circles for the last six years and appointed other officials which created a rift among patwaris.
As most of the newly-appointed patwaris had taken the charge of their offices but the official record of the respective patwar circles was missing from their offices. The administration had been demanding the official record from the transferred patwaris, but they were reluctant to surrender the record.
On Saturday, the AC again got registered cases against six patwaris — Anjuman Patwarian tehsil president Shabbir Ahmed Gujjar, Sagheerul Hassan and Sajjad Aslam of the city circle with the Civil Lines police and Malik Muneer and Tahir Mehmood of Jalalpur Jattan and Chaudhry Arif of Sabowal circle with the Jalalpur Jattan and Rehmania police stations, respectively, under Section 409 of the PPC.
The AC stated that the official revenue record of the last 13 years had been found missing from patwar circles.
It is learnt that patwari Muhammad Ilyas, who had been transferred from the Karianwala patwar circle, is not willing to relinquish the charge of the patwar circle.
Official sources said since the transfer of Ilyas, his men had always been present at the patwar office which had become a headache for the administration.
The influential patwari had earlier got the support of the former PML-Q regime and now he had the backing of an influential PML-N leader, who was said to have been his class fellow.
The administration finally got the police help in getting vacated the Karianwala patwar circle’s office on Saturday. The administration is optimistic that the newly-appointed patwari will start working at the patwar office.
With the registration of fresh criminal cases against patwaris, it is learnt that the tone of the Anjuman Patwarian has changed and it seems to be ready to come to the negotiating table with the district administration.
Haji Nasir Mehmood, a disqualified MPA and the district secretary-general of the PML-N, denied the allegations of backing the patwaris’ agitation.
He said he raised the question on the credibility of patwaris who had been appointed as the replacement for the protesting ones.
He said despite reservations about the newly-appointed patwaris in the city area, he had never intervened in the official decision which could be judged through an impartial inquiry of the patwaris saga.