How dare you probe

ISLAMABAD: Annoyed with its bureaucrat minion for having the audacity of doing the right thing by exposing a “dirty deal”, the Establishment Division punished an honest joint secretary of the Ministry of Minorities, Munir Ahmed Chaudhry, by making him an officer on special duty (OSD) writes Rauf Klasra.

His “crime” had been that he had conducted investigations into the dirty deal between the Evacuee Trust Board, Pakistan, (ETBP) and Defence Housing Society (DHA), Lahore. If the officer was expecting plaudits for his efforts then he was in for a rude shock because when he reported for duty on Wednesday morning, he found a directive waiting for him on his table, directing him to immediately report to Establishment Division as OSD.

Meanwhile, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Ch Nisar Ali Khan took serious note of the ETPB-DHA land transfer scam published in The News on April 21. Ministry of Minorities Secretary Javed Akthar has been directed to appear before PAC on Friday to explain the whole scam as how come the ETBP had transferred the Gurdwara lands to the DHA which was not allowed under the Sikh Act 1925.

The transfer of 575 kanals of Sikh Gurdwara land to DHA, Lahore, had even echoed in Indian parliament in December last year, and New Delhi had asked Pakistan to conduct investigations into the transfer of the minorities land to DHA. Consequently, the Ministry had appointed Joint Secretary Munir Ahmed Chaudhry to head a two member inquiry committee, which has now confirmed that the deal was dirty and should be reviewed to save Pakistan’s image.

This is first high profile case of punishment of any officer in recent days when an officer refused to fall in line and conducted the investigations without any fear, but he was made an example to send a loud message to the rest of the bureaucracy that whosoever would try to follow his conscience and try to save the public interests would be punished by the Establishment Division.

Earlier, Establishment Secretary Ismail Qureshi surprisingly came into action on Wednesday after reading the revealing investigations into the land transfer to DHA by ETPB in The News. Ismail Qureshi said to be very close to former ETPB Chairman Asif Hashmi, who is now facing serious charges, did not waste a minute to punish the honest officer, who according to his conscience and available record had given his findings that how the ETBP had violated all the rules and regulations to award the 575 kanals of land to DHA.

The finding of the report had established the irregularities in the whole deal and had demanded constitution of a high powered commission to further probe the matter after appointing the representatives of the Ministries of Minorities, Finance, Defence, intelligence agencies and FIA.

According to the transfer letter of Munir Ahmed BS 20 dated April 21, a copy of the same available with The News, the officer has been told that he has been immediately transferred and directed to report to the Establishment Division with immediate affect.”

In a bid to further punish the officer, who conducted the inquiry, Ismail Qureshi has even cancelled his earlier appointment as joint secretary Information Technology and Telecom Division as he has been told he would now serve as OSD in the Establishment Division.

Talking to The News, Minorities Ministry Secretary Javed Akthar defended the immediate transfer of joint secretary Munir Ahmed Chaudhry and said he was already under transfer and Wednesday orders had nothing to do with the publication of scam in The News. But when asked how an officer was made an OSD on the day the report was published in the newspaper, he repeated that it had nothing to with the findings of the inquiry report. When told that if this action had nothing to do with publication of this scam, then why was his earlier order to appoint him as joint secretary ministry of information technology were also cancelled by Ismail Qureshi, he did not even attempt to offer any response. Establishment Division Secretary Ismail Qureshi did not make himself available for comment despite repeated attempts to seek his version.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=28439