By News Desk
LAHORE: Support for Ahad Cheema is apparently waning among bureaucrats over his abrupt arrest on corruption charges, as the Punjab bureaucracy has been divided in two parts.
Informal meetings of civil servants were held on Saturday, although relatively lesser number of bureaucrats attended it. A meeting was attended by additional chief secretary and some other senior government officers including two dozen civil servants.
However, it is learnt that participation was thin and no consensus could be evolved over conclusive future line of action.
Sources said that general tone of senior bureaucrats was now relatively milder and official response on the issue in the form of strike or agitation was least likely. Although there is continuous pressure from the office of top civil servant of the province to raise this issue vehemently, no serious response has been seen yet, according to sources.
Some circles in bureaucracy said there should be no confrontation on an individual case and all civil servants should call for fair and impartial trial. Provincial service officers have opposed any strike on the issue. They added that emphasis should be on completion of proper litigation process before arrest against any official.
Some banners were seen in the city in favour of Ahad Cheema, highlighting his role in completion of various development schemes.
Meanwhile, Provincial Management Service Association Punjab Secretary General Naveed Shahzad has refused to become part of protest over the arrest. He said no illegal act would be carried out over corruption charges against an official. On the other hand, NAB Lahore arrested a member of a private housing society board at pointation of Ahad Cheema and took the mobile phones and laptop of Ahad Cheema into custody. The experts have also been consulted to recover the deleted data.
Sources said big revelations are expected from the mobile phone messages and laptop documents. The NAB officials say no pressure would be accepted and independent investigations would continue into the alleged corruption. NAB Lahore also refused Ahad Cheema a meeting with her wife, and noose is being tightened against the bureaucracy of all other three provinces including Sindh. In the first phase, all preparations have been finalised for action against corrupt bureaucrats in Sindh after Punjab. Sources said the Sindh bureaucracy has also made a plan to launch a protest campaign against NAB and FIA action.
According to details, NAB Lahore arrested former DG LDA Ahad Cheema on February 21 for allotting 32-kanal land to Aashiana Iqbal Housing Society illegally and misuse of his authority. The Punjab government and bureaucracy showed severe reaction over the arrest and the civil servants threatened to go on pen-down strike.
According to Geo News report, the bureaucracy was later on divided into two groups over the protest call. Naveed Shahzad said civil servants would not take any illegal act over the arrest of an official on corruption charges. He said Ahad Cheema had got arrested 73 officers including four women over protest when he was acting as the DCO Lahore. He alleged that they were continuously being pressured by the Punjab chief secretary office to become part of the protest movement.
On the other hand, NAB Lahore has arrested another accused in Aashiana Housing Scheme scandal, Shahid Shafiq. Arrested on pointation of Ahad Cheema, the accused is a partner of Bismillah Engineering Services. He has been arrested in connection with investigation into Punjab Land Development Company affairs. The Bismillah Engineering Services is a sister organisation of Paragon City company.
According to NAB sources, Punjab Land Development Company signed an agreement on Jan 20, 2015, and 16,000 poor people deposited Rs610 million to get a house in the scheme. However, project could not be completed despite passage of three years.
Meanwhile, Ahad Cheema, then LDA DG, gave a Rs14 billion contract to Lahore CASA company illegally. CASA is joint venture of three companies – Bismillah Engineering Services, SPARCO, and China Group. According to sources, giving contract worth over Rs150 million was illegal. Due to ineligibility of these companies, the government suffered a loss of Rs645 million. Accused Shahid Shafiq Alam Faridi has been arrested on the charges of preparing false documents to win Rs14 billion project.
According to a NAB spokesman, the accused, proprietor/partner of M/s Bismillah Engineering Services, in connivance with Lahore Development Authority (LDA) officials, presented false documents of joint venture consisting of three firms/companies including M/s Bismillah Engineering Services Co, M/s SPRACO Construction Company and M/s China First Metallurgical Group Co. and obtained the contract of Rs14 billion in an illegal manner.
Being the owner of C4 Company, he said, the accused was not eligible for the contract.
The accused, the spokesman added, fraudulently represented M/s SPARCO Company as lead member of JV but as per JV agreement, signed by him on May 18, 2015; the actual lead member was M/s Bismillah Engineering. This malicious act was done to conceal the poor and ineligible financial and technical capabilities of M/s Bismillah, he claimed. Furthermore, the spokesman said the accused Shahid, with fraudulent intentions, obtained constructive possession of Aashiana Iqbal project without financial close wilfully failed to complete the project, due to which the national exchequer had to suffer a loss to the tune of Rs1,000 million.
During the investigation, he said the accused was given fair chance to explain the allegations, but he failed to submit any plausible reply.
The accused would be presented before the accountability court to obtain his physical remand for further interrogation.
Meanwhile, NAB Lahore has confiscated the mobile phones and laptop of Ahad Cheema. According to NAB sources, they have obtained important material from the mobile and laptop of Cheema, but the services of experts have been hired for recovering a large quantity of data which was deleted. Investigation team is also analysing the material gathered from his email account and the record of some telephone calls.
Meanwhile, a NAB spokesperson said they would continue working according to law, merit, transparency and justice despite a difficult environment, adding that no threat, warning or protest would be allowed to become a hurdle.
He said the NAB had solid evidence and would present further explanation through a report before the accountability court after the expiry of remand. The NAB had nothing to do with politics, any political party or group, he said, and added that deployment of Rangers at the NAB Lahore office was necessary for protecting the record.
Meanwhile, Cheema’s wife was not allowed to meet her husband even when she produced a court order.
Banners are now visible on Mall Road against Cheema’s arrest. The banners carrying the name of Labour League Federation carry the statement “Ahad Cheema is the face of development schemes in Punjab” and demand his immediate release.