May 05, 2008	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 28, 1429

LAHORE, May 4: A Punjab government officer who was forced to leave the country, his family and his job because of alleged pressure from a former minister, seeks justice from the new provincial government.

Agha Imran Ali, a PCS officer, working nowhere else but in the Chief Minister's Secretariat as senior protocol officer, is now in United Kingdom, doing menial jobs to survive, leaving his wife and three children here with his parents.

He narrated his story to Dawn on telephone after his relatives approached it, seeking justice and protection for the officer.

According to Agha Imran and the documents he sent through email, his ordeal started when his wife bought a plot near Lahore's new airport terminal. He claimed that the minister started pressing him for obtaining the plot upon which he conveyed it to the chief minister.

He said the chief minister referred the matter to the DCO who sent his staff to help him build a boundary wall around the plot but the minister's men allegedly ‘disallowed’ him to do so.

He said he again approached the chief minister who deputed two senior revenue officials to check legality of the purchase of the plot. The revenue officers confirmed that there was no illegality in the deal and the plot belonged to him (the officer).Agha Imran alleged that in the meantime the minister increased pressure on him and his colleagues advised him to proceed on leave to save his life.

He said in pursuance of the advice, he obtained one-year ex-Pakistan leave on August 9, 2006 and went abroad from where he sent his resignation on July 29, 2007 in view of persistent threat to his life.

He said the Service and General Administration Department did not accept his resignation despite the fact that he had fulfilled all legal requirements and initiated an inquiry against him on the charges of "casting aspersions against the minister, and indulging in anti-state activities."

He said the department did not explain the types of aspersions or the nature of anti-state activities he was accused of.

Interestingly, he said the department suddenly dropped the inquiry on March 15 when the caretaker government was looking after the province and the general elections had been held and later accepted his resignation.