KASUR: Local leaders of the PML-N, including parliamentarians, local government representatives and ticket holders, seem to be in the soup as the district administration has submitted corruption references against an MNA and his former lawmaker father. Similar references against many other party leaders are in the final stages.

A former PML-N MPA had already been arrested on charges of land grabbing.

Deputy Commissioner Manzar Javaid Ali submitted separate references with the anti-corruption director general against MNA Saad Waseem and his father, former MNA Sheikh Waseem Akhtar. According to the references, copies of which are available with this correspondent, the charges had been prepared in light of a report prepared by the Kasur tehsil assistant commissioner.

According to the reference against MNA Waseem, he had established an illegal housing society, Saad Colony, and caused a loss to the exchequer through tax evasion worth millions of rupees with the connivance of officials of the Lahore Development Authority, the municipal committee and other departments. He also encroached upon 17 kanals of state land adjacent to the housing society, it alleged.

References filed against MNA, ex-lawmaker; half a dozen more in the crosshairs

The reference against former MNA Akhtar stated that he was illegally operating a tannery in Kasur and had encroached upon a portion of state land adjacent to the unit with the connivance of former Kasur Tanneries Waste Management Agency project manager Sheikh Shoaib Hassan.

The references recommended criminal proceedings against the “culprits”.

A couple of weeks ago, the Anti-Corruption Establishment Kasur circle had arrested former MPA Ehsan Raza on charges of constructing an illegal housing society and encroaching upon state land in Kanganpur area.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the administration had finalised references on charges of land grabbing and corruption against many more PML-N leaders, including former mayor Rana Sikandar Hayat, former Punjab Assembly speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal, MNA Rana Muhammad Ishaq, MPAsMalik Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Malik Rasheed Ahmed and Malik Ahmed Saeed and local leader Rana Muhammad Hayat.

While the district administration was actively pursuing corruption cases against the opposition, it was yet to probe into scores of other illegal housing societies in Phoolnagar, Jamsher Kalan, Ferozepur Road, Khem Karan Road, Abdul Khaliq Road, Pattoki and Kot Radha Kishan being run by ruling party parliamentarians.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2020