Rawalpindi The civil servants working in different government departments have accused Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of harassment, the charges vehemently denied by the concerned authorities.
The employees of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Metropolitan Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR), Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Parks and Horticultural Authority (PHA), Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC), District Education Department (DED) and Regional Transport Authority (RTA) have expressed grave concerns about harassment at the hands of ACE.
The ACE, Rawalpindi has registered FIRs against senior most officers of grade 17, 18 and 19 while several FIRs have been registered against the lower staff of different departments under the control of local administration only in the past two months.
It is pertinent to mention that majority of public sector departments are without officers while several seats of grade 14, 16, 17, 18 and 19 have been lying vacant for a long time and have not been filled.
The civil servants of concerned departments on anonymity have appealed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice on this situation because the Anti-Corruption Department (ACE) on source reporting registered baseless FIRs only to harass them. They have alleged that ACE not allowing us to work trapping them in baseless cases.
Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Rawalpindi Region (Director) Kanwal Batool admitting registration FIRs against several officers of the local administration told ‘The News’ that they will not spare corrupt officers from all departments. “Law has allowed me to take action on source reporting,” she said. She has also expressed concerns against her own staff and appealed media to inform her if her staff members demand ‘bribe’ from anyone.
She said that corrupt officers have become billionaires and are living in big bungalows. “How could they afford such a luxury. Some of the corrupt officers have transferred to some other cities but I will arrest them at any cost,” she warned. Denying all allegations of ‘harassment’, she said that we are performing our duty to arrest corrupt officers. She said that she has informed Commissioner Rawalpindi Division before taking action against corrupt officers.
According to information, Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Rawalpindi has registered four FIRs against Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Assistant Director (Panning) Samiullah Khan Niazi, Land & Building Control (Director) Jamshed Aftab, Metropolitan & Traffic Engineer (Director) Tahir Meo, Land and Building Control (Deputy Director) Muhammad Ijaz and several other officers.
Similarly, the Anti-Corruption Department (ACE) has registered FIRs against Municipal Officer (Planning) Shahzad Haider, Metropolitan Corporation (Director) Ali Imran and several other others. The ACE has also registered FIRs against senior-most officers of other departments of local administration.
Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Assistant Director (Panning) Samiullah Khan Niazi, Land & Building Control (Director) Jamshed Aftab, and Metropolitan & Traffic Engineer (Director) Tahir Meo have left their charge while several other civil servants are in the state of fear and panic and ready to resign.