LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has launched proceedings under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act-2006 against its five officers for involvement in a Rs875m scam. Despite the ongoing inquiry, the accused officers have not been suspended from service as all of them, except one, continue holding the prime posts in the LDA Directorate of Housing-VII from where they had facilitated the private people.

The officers had executed an agreement with some private people for giving them ‘specific’ plots against the land they had surrendered to the authority in Johar Town under the exemption category.

“It has never happened in the history of LDA that the officers allegedly involved in the scam continue holding the same posts where they had done corruption. It is strange that the officers declared guilty in a fact-finding probe are facing inquiry under PEEDA Act and enjoying the lucrative posts,” deplored an official source.

“It seems that the guilty officers are so powerful that they have forced the LDA management not to suspend them from service,” the official, who requested anonymity, told Dawn on Sunday.

According to the inquiry order, the LDA DG initiated disciplinary proceedings against Moazzam Rasheed, director Housing-VII, Sibtain Raza Qureshi, deputy director Law – (the then director), Muhammad Irfan, deputy director Law, Muhammad Babr Ikram, deputy director and Rai Shah Jahan, estate officer of Housing-VII on the charges of inefficiency/negligence. Mudasir Ahmed Shah, additional director general, was appointed as the inquiry officer to proceed against the accused officials.

The new order appointed Qamar Zahoor, assistant director (Housing-VIl) as departmental representative.

According to another official source, the agreement was made between private parties and Director Housing-VII, Moazzam Rasheed on behalf of LDA pledging to give plots worth Rs875m to private persons’ states. He revealed that the joint evaluation report was not only maneuvered by the director but the selection of specific seven plots (bearing No 18-24 Block G-I Johar Town located on Canal Road) for the purpose of joint evaluation was also arbitrary and filled with malafide as the area of the owners was dispersed over 13 khasra numbers.

“As per superimposed map of scheme, more than 50 plots are located on those 13 khasra numbers. So the said director has no power to pinpoint seven high worth plots. This also runs against the exemption policy of Johar Town Scheme which stipulates exemption of 30pc area irrespective of its location. To achieve the vested interests, the Supreme Court order, dated 31.03.2021, was misinterpreted and used as a pretext to evaluate market rate of the aforementioned seven plots while the Supreme Court order was about allocation of two plots only,” he explained.

“The LDA DG must immediately file a review petition over the order passed by Supreme Court based on the said agreement dated 21.02.2024 to safeguard the authority from this massive embezzlement and plunder,” the officer suggested, requesting Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to intervene.

LDA DG Tahir Farooq said the inquiry was underway against the accused officers and the findings would be based on merit.

“Under the PEEDA proceedings, there are major and minor punishments (removal from service, demotion etc) of different nature,” he said.

To a question, he added that he won’t accept any pressure or influence from anyone and would take appropriate action against the officers soon after having findings of the inquiry report. However, the question as to why the officers were still holding their posts remained unanswered.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2024