FAISALABAD: A public interest complaint filed by a citizen on the Prime Minister’s Portal, after moving through different departments finally landed with police which on their own declared the issue settled “as the complainant did not want to pursue it”.

Hammad Ahmed, in his complaint submitted with the PM portal had pointed out that instead of the Faisalabad Parking Company, district bar association was managing parking lots at three points in the city, including Circular Road, University Road and along District Council Road. He said parking on these roads were being charged by the bar association rather than the parking company.

He contended the bar association had no right to charge parking fee as neither it was a government institution, nor got any contract for the purpose through an auction.

He told Dawn that he had raised the issue at the PM portal to point out an illegal activity and save people from exploitation.

“First my complaint was forwarded to the deputy commissioner who sent it to the parking company. Then it was forwarded to the municipal corporation and finally my complaint landed with the police department,” he added.

He said the police neither contacted him personally to get his statement, nor sent any letter to him for pursuing the case.

He said that he was shocked to receive an SMS from the PM portal a couple of days back that informed him that as per police his case had been settled as “the complainant did not want to pursue the complaint.”

He said that he wanted to raise the issue of illegal parking lots in the city where an influential “mafia” was operating with impunity to exploit the people.

Ahmed said the parking company in its reply on the PM’s portal stated parking was being managed at the three points by a contractor at the behest of the bar who was overcharging.

The parking mafia had become so unbridled that it was undermining the district government and fleecing people on the roads and even inside hospitals.

A citizen, Naseer Amin who visited a hospital a couple of days ago said he was charged Rs20 by the contractor for parking a motorcycle instead of official rate of Rs10. He said when he filed a complaint, the hospital administration said it could not do anything about it as the contractor had contacts with some local politicians. He was advised to file a complaint with police for registration of a graft case against the contractor.

With regard to Hammad’s complaint, a government officer requesting anonymity said the officials concerned were reluctant to take action against the bar fearing lawyers reaction.

He said the PM portal had become a “bane” for the officials, claiming a majority of the people submit false complaints which result in wastage of government resources and time of officials concerned.

He, however, admitted that genuine complaints could help eliminate illegal activities and improve officials performance so that they could resolve the issues faced by the public.

ACE: The Anti Corruption Establishment retrieved 2 acers and 4 kanals of state land worth Rs1.1 billion at Chak 279-RB (city area).

As per ACE, a team retrieved valuable state land owned by Punjab government on the direction of ACE Punjab Director General Muhammad Gohar Nafees.

The land was illegally occupied by three suspects -- Muhammad Iqbal, Iqbal Dogar and Tahir Dogar who used it for cultivation of vegetables.

The revenue staff also helped the ACE team in the operation.

The per marla value of the retrieved land assessed by revenue staff is Rs700,000.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2019