Secretary minerals accuses KP CM of harassing him

ISLAMABAD: The outgoing secretary mines and minerals Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has blown the lid off the ongoing exchange of corruption allegations between chief minister Pervez Khattak and minister for mines and minerals Ziaullah Afridi currently behind the bars on corruption charges.
In a letter to the federal Secretary Establishment, secretary Mian Waheed Uddin, who was relieved on July 14, has accused CM Khattak of harassing him for not accommodating the corrupt officials, refusing to oblige companies involved in illegal mining and inquiry against cement factories that under-reported the extraction of raw minerals causing loss of Rs1.6 billion to the government.
He has also called into question the criminal negligence of the police and district administration of CM Khattak’s hometown (Nowshera) towards the influential figures involved in illegal mining who are not being arrested, FIRs against them notwithstanding.
The secretary has termed Ehtesab Commission KP, autonomous “only in papers” that, he wrote, is being used as a tool to persecute honest and dedicated officers who do not succumb to the pressures of the vested interest.
The News sent a list of questions for CM Khattak’s version, which he refused to answer. “CM says he doesn’t know about the letter and will be able to respond to any such thing only if it comes to him officially,” his spokesman, Mubashir Rahim Malik, said.
Waheed has enlisted in the letter the work of the mines and minerals department under his watch, the actions taken against the illegal mining and comparison of his one and half year’s performance with the previous 13 years of the department.
CM Khattak had threatened him of serious consequences for ‘disobeying’ his command. His threatening conversation has been quoted in the letter in addition to the humiliation the secretary faced when summoned to the CM House when he cancelled the mining contract to a company - M/s Tony Pak.
If the chronology of events listed in the letter is any guide, the first unpleasant incident occurred in June 2014, which the secretary believes became one of the major reasons of tension culminating at the minister’s arrest.
A firm, M/s Tony Pak, was at the heart of this tension. It was excavating antimony from mines at Chogor (Chitral) and illegally selling it in China. The firm’s excavation licence was eventually cancelled that prompted the intervention of the CM House, according to the secretary’s letter obtained by The News from the official sources in the Establishment Division.
The secretary, DG and the staff of the ministry were summoned to the CM House and confronted with the firm’s representative. “We explained that the notice was served for illegal selling of antimony during exploration phase prohibited by rules. We came back after the representatives of M/s Tony Pak had a heated altercation with the official team in the presence of the CM,” says the letter.
This followed action against the illegal mining activities in Nowshera, the home district of CM Khattak where 97 FIRs were filed against those involved in the said activities. Included among them were individuals connected with the powerful circles. “Conspicuously, no effective action was taken against the reported culprits either by the police or the local administration,” the letter says.
It was during the same period that CM Khattak wrote a letter to the secretary for accommodating a tainted individual. “I received a letter from CM KPK (copy available) asking me to post one assistant director Mr. Sher Ayaz on a higher post of deputy director, in Abbottabad. He was a known corrupt officer with inquiries pending against him so I did not carry out these unlawful orders, which naturally infuriated the CM. Later, Mr. Sher Ayaz was dismissed from service on corruption charges after thorough inquiries by Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in April 2015.”
The secretary was removed following his refusal to accommodate Sher Ayaz and posted as commissioner Bannu. However, he was reverted to the secretary’s position within no days “presumably on the order of PTI chief.” This followed a call from CM Khattak on the secretary’s mobile number and he said: “I had posted you as commissioner and you have managed to revert through ‘sefarish’. Now I will see you and I will not let you go out of this province. You are also responsible for illegal mining.”
Upon hearing this, the letter says, the secretary clarified his position saying neither he has approached anybody for the cancellation of this transfer nor was be involved in illegal mining, and reported this conversation to the minister, Ziaullah Afridi. The CM’s words rang true as the secretary is not being relieved despite the requisition sent by the Establishment Division in March this year.
In April this year, according to the letter, the secretary constituted a committee that found under-reporting of mineral raw material by seven cement factories. The inquiry concluded in June confirmed the suspicions of under-reporting by them causing the loss of Rs1.6 billion to the government.
Three weeks after this inquiry, Ehtesab Commission sent a questionnaire to the secretary seeking information about various aspects of the department that was provided and a copy was also sent to the chief secretary.
Soon after the report on cement factories, says the letter “taking over possession of cancelled antimony mines of Ms. Toni Pak in Chitral and visit of DG to Mamma Khel area, District Nowshera to control illegal mining on my express instructions, vested interests quickly came into action and started harassment ....I firmly believe that this happened on the behest of the influential elements as mentioned above.”
At the end, the secretary has also given details of the departmental performance under his watch. From 2011 to 2013, illegal mining to the tune of Rs242 million was assessed and in the next one-year and a half, the department under the secretary Waheed made assessment of Rs2600 million. Likewise, 201 mining concessions were cancelled in 13 years (2001-2013) while 150 cancellations occurred in one year and a half alone under the watch of Waheed. As many as 613 FIRs were registered against those involved in illegal mining that was in contrast with 702 FIRs in last one year and a half.