BAHAWALNAGAR: The district administration has allegedly caused a loss of Rs890m to the national exchequer, benefitting the wheat hoarders and letting them go scot-free as it has returned the whole money from the sale of hoarded wheat to the hoarders instead of depositing half of the amount to the government exchequer as per the Punjab Prevention of Hoarding Act 2020, Dawn has learnt.

Sources in the revenue department while sharing Clause 3 of the Act, titled Offence of Hoarding, said according to this clause anyone found guilty of the offence could get imprisonment up to three years whereas the fine would be equivalent to 50pc of the value of the hoarded articles. However, the district administration neither ensured imprisonment for the hoarders nor imposed fine, allegedly acting hand in glove with the wheat hoarders and traders.

A report of the district administration about action against hoarding from April 4 to May 23, a copy available with Dawn, said that a total of 356,922 wheat bags, 5,400 bags of flour, 5,773 bags of sugar and 149,350kg of lentils had been seized in 123 cases of hoarding in the aforementioned period. The report said that 108 outlets were sealed and six FIRs were registered against the hoarders under the Punjab Prevention of Hoarding Act 2020. However, the report said that no hoarder was fined.

The sources said that a 100kg bag of wheat was priced at Rs4,500 as per government rates. As per the report, the seized 356,922 wheat bags amounted to Rs1.6bn and half of it should have been fine imposed on the hoarders but not a single penny was deposited with the government exchequer yet. The action from April 4 and May 23 cost the national exchequer about Rs890m just in wheat hoarding, the sources said.

Report shows no hoarder was fined over confiscated wheat worth Rs1.6bn

The sources said that at all five tehsils of the district, the assistant commissioners (ACs) handed over the seized wheat to the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) or the food department and they were supposed to pay the hoarders money as per government rates while deducting the fine amount.

The sources in the revenue department further said that in this matter police were also responsible as cases were registered with police on the complaints of the assistant commissioners. The sources said the recovered goods (wheat in this case) became a case property and it was the responsibility of police to keep the material in their custody until court trial so that it could be produced before the court as evidence against the hoarders. However, the sources alleged, the case property was handed over to other departments to deliberately destroy the evidence before the trial. In this way, police had no evidence against the hoarders to present before the court to convict them.

The sources said it was the responsibility of the confiscating officer to get the material (wheat) weighed by an approved ‘weigher’. However, the administration was counting the bags of the seized wheat and estimating the weight based on it, which would never be acceptable to the court.

PASSCO DGM Najeeb Iftikhar said action against the hoarders was taken by the assistant commissioners and they had to follow the anti-hoarding act. He said PASSCO had returned the wheat bags to the hoarders (bag owners) on the government rates, which was around Rs4,500 per bag.

Bahawalnagar Deputy Commissioner Shafqatullah Mushtaq did not give his version on the matter and this scribe waited for his comments for three days while he also ignored the calls.

Bahawalnagar Acting DPO Muhammad Farooq Anwar said that he would comment on the issue after getting proper information about the role of police in the matter.

While, an assistant commissioner, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Dawn that the cases pertaining to wheat hoarding were under trial in the courts and they would be dealt with according to the court orders.

On the other hand, a senior police officer said although recovered property in a case were case property and should remain in police custody until completion of the trial but in the case of wheat hoarding, revenue officials would provide a written statement about the weight and price of the confiscated wheat. After this, he added, the hoarding material was handed over to the revenue officials.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021