MULTAN: Even after the passage of seven months, the Multan police is reluctant to lodge FIRs on the complaint of District Council Multan against a person for illegal construction, Dawn has learnt.

Senior Building Inspector Javed Iqbal, on behalf of the district officer planning, submitted three applications at the front desk of three police stations - Mumtazabad, Basti Malook and Shah Shams - on Jan 25 that Zulfiqar Ali Anjam was constructing an illegal structure at Adda Billiwala, Bahawalpur Road, and that he failed to submit Rs80 million (total payable amount over the constructions in the jurisdiction of three police stations) to the department as conversion fee.

The suspect also failed to prove no-objection certificates from the departments of environment, National Highway Authority, Civil Defence and traffic engineering and the approved design from the district council.

He stated that the ongoing industrial constructions could be proved dangerous for people of the area and passersby. The respondent ignored several notices served on him.

He stated that the act of the persons/administration is fraud, deceitful, interference in the official work which is a criminal offense under the Punjab Local Government Act 2013.

The copies of these applications were also sent to the deputy commissioner, the city police officer, the chief officer district council, the director environment, the district officer regulation, the district council, the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited and the Multan Electric and Power Company.

Sources in the district council said that no one was ready to become a complainant in the case.

They said that the fine and liabilities are roughly calculated as the actual amount is many time more.

Chief Officer District Council Shahid Iqbal said that the department has submitted applications to the police stations and now it is the responsibility of the police to lodge the FIRs.

Mumtazabad Station House Officer Khalid Amin said that the area mentioned in the application submitted at the front desk of Mumtazabad police station does not fall in the jurisdiction of his police stations.

Basti Malook SHO Qaswar Karlo said that when the application was submitted, he was the Mumtazabad SHO.

Shah Shams SHO Hussain Bakhsh said that he did not know about the application.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2019