Ahad Cheema arrest: Bureaucracy divided

LAHORE: Support for Ahad Cheema is apparently waning among the bureaucrats over his abrupt arrest on corruption charges, as the Punjab bureaucracy has split into two.

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 the participation was thin and no consensus could be evolved over a conclusive future line of action.

Sources said the general tone of the senior bureaucrats is now relatively milder and the official response on the issue in the form of strike or agitation was least likely. Although there is continuous pressure from the office of a top civil servant of the province to raise this issue vehemently, no serious response has been seen yet, according to sources. Some circles in the bureaucracy said there should be no confrontation over an individual case and all the civil servants should demand a fair and impartial trial. The provincial service officers have opposed any strike on the issue. They added that emphasis should be on completion of proper litigation process before the arrest of any official. Provincial Management Service Association Punjab Secretary General Naveed Shahzad has also refused to become part of the protest over the arrest. He said no illegal act would be carried out over corruption charges against an official. Meanwhile, some banners were seen in the city in favour of Ahad Cheema, highlighting his role in completion of various development schemes.

The 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 the investigation into the Punjab Land Development Company affairs. The Bismillah Engineering Services is a sister organisation of Paragon City company. The NAB has also impounded Cheema's mobile phones and laptop. Several experts have been consulted to recover the deleted data. Sources expect major disclosures from the forensic examination of mobile phone and laptop. The NAB officials say no pressure would be accepted and independent investigations would be continued into the alleged corruption.

The NAB Lahore also refused Ahad Cheema a meeting with his wife, and noose is being tightened against the bureaucracy of all the other three provinces including Sindh. In the first phase, all preparations have been finalised for action against corrupt bureaucrats in Sindh. Sources said the Sindh bureaucracy has also made a plan to launch a protest campaign against NAB and FIA action.

The NAB Lahore arrested former DG LDA Ahad Cheema on February 21 for allotting 32-kanal land to Aashiana Iqbal Housing Society illegally and by misusing his authority. According to NAB sources, Punjab Land Development Company signed an agreement on Jan 20, 2015, following which 16,000 poor people deposited Rs610 million to get a house in the scheme. However, the project could not be completed despite passage of three years.

Meanwhile, Ahad Cheema, then LDA DG, awarded 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. An accused Shahid Shafiq Alam Faridi has been arrested for forging documents to win the Rs14 billion project. According to a NAB spokesman, being the owner of C4 Company 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 possession of Aashiana Iqbal project without financial close and willfully failed to complete the project, due to which the national exchequer suffered a loss to the tune of Rs1,000 million. During the investigation, he said the accused was given a 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, 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 has concrete evidence and would present further explanation through a report before the accountability court after the expiry of remand. The NAB has nothing to do with politics, political party or group, he said, and added the deployment of Rangers at the NAB Lahore office was necessary for protecting the record.

Similarly, Cheema’s arrest has created sense of anxiety among the bureaucrats in Punjab. Many of the senior servants are observing an unannounced strike as they are demanding changes to the accountability laws. Sources say it is likely that the civil servants may start protesting on the Mall Road due to the NAB’s behaviour towards the senior bureaucrats, including not only the latest episode of Cheema but also because of the past incidents involving Usman Akram Gondal, Muhammad Ali Nekokara, Aftab Cheema and others. The senior bureaucrats are also very angry over the released images of Cheema, the sources added.

On the other hand, the government servants in Rawalpindi also are not paying any attention to the official work, as Commissioner Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry and DC Talat Mehmood Gondal attended the meeting held in Lahore on Friday.