BAHAWALNAGAR: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Tuesday arrested Minchinabad Assistant Commissioner Mudassir Arif Khokhar after his pre-arrest bail was dismissed in a court in Bahawalpur.

Anti-Corruption Court Judge Ibrahim Asghar issued the arrest orders after corruption of Rs8 million was proved against the assistant commissioner through misappropriation in fines imposed on kilns and petrol pumps.

The corruption scandal hit the headlines after this paper’s Feb 15 news report upon which an inquiry was initiated on the orders of former ACE DG Hussain Asghar. ACE Bahawalpur Director Imran Raza started the investigation and formed an inquiry committee comprising Anti-Corruption Circle Officer Abdul Qayyum and Deputy Director Nauman. The committee started investigation against the assistant commissioner on Feb 19.

On Feb 21, the inquiry committee summoned Khokhar and revenue officials including Zahid Imran, Adnan Wattoo, Abdul Malik, Muhammad Umar and Akmal Bhatti to the ACE office along with relevant record.

Khokhar after formally receiving the record from Domicile Clerk Adnan Wattoo and Registry Muharrar Zahid Imran lodged an FIR against them on the allegation of stealing the office record. He, however, withdrew the FIR after a few days but the record was not submitted to the inquiry committee. In the meanwhile, Khokhar moved an application, first to Anti-Corruption Additional DG and later to DG Ajaz Shah (who replaced Hussain Asghar) to have the inquiry committee changed. But the DG rejected the application and directed Inquiry Officer Abdul Qayyum to continue the probe.

After finding evidence of corruption on April 1, an FIR No 2/19 was lodged against Mudassir Arif Khokhar and three revenue officials by the inquiry team according to which around Rs8 million had not been submitted to the government exchequer for 400 fine receipts from the receipt books 224 and 341.

To blackmail the inquiry team after the FIR was lodged, revenue officials on the order of the assistant commissioner launched a pen-down strike and claimed that the FIR was bogus. They said they would continue their protest until the FIR was quashed.

At the same time, an attempt to lodge a fake FIR was made at the Minchinabad police station against the inquiry officer and the reporter which was rejected by police.

The strike of the Minchinabad revenue office against the ACE officials continued for 11 days and finally on April 11, Khokhar returned Rs912,000 to the government account for 51 receipts from book 341.

On April 13, Additional Secretary Ajaz Ahmed took action against Khokhar and he was immediately transferred and asked to report to the S&GAD, while the very next day Bahawalnagar Deputy Commissioner Sayein Ditta Khalid was made OSD for failing to take departmental action against the assistant commissioner. He was replaced by Rana Saleem Afzal.

Speaking to Dawn, Investigation Officer Abdul Qayyum and Deputy Director Nauman said an inquiry was going on over the transfer of Rs2.7 million (out of Rs4.2 million) of the general election 2018 funds to the bank account of the assistant commissioner and corruption at the Registry Branch. They said these inquiries would be conducted on merit and action would be taken against any official found involved in corruption.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2019