Rs10 billion state land retrieved in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: Government land worth Rs 10 billion has been retrieved from land mafia by the Anti-Corruption Establishment during a one week operation in Faisalabad.

Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, ACE Regional Director Mehr Shafqatullah Mushtaq said that under the instructions of ACE Punjab Director General Syed Hussain Asghar, they launched an operation in Faisalabad and traced a number of cases where the land mafia had encroached on precious government land in connivance with some officials and raised structures there.

He said that the ACE Faisalabad Region received 158 corruption complaints during a month and of them 108 complaints were forwarded to the departments concerned for appropriate action. Out of these complaints, the ACE was conducting inquiries in 26 corruption cases, he added.

Mehr Shafqatullah said that the administration of a housing society inflicted a colossal loss of Rs 1 billion to the government. He said that an FIR had already been lodged against them and the ACE was waiting for a judicial action against them.

He said that an inquiry was also being held against defective constructions of various projects in Ayub Research Institute. Similarly, the ACE was also probing into Rs 1,700,000 corruption allegation against the General Hospital, Samanabad, which was committed in purchase of medicines, he added.

The ACE regional director said that an inquiry was also being held into Rs 2.3 billion alleged corruption in construction of 25km expressway in Faisalabad. He pledged to purge the ACE of corrupt and complacent Officials.