Anti-Corruption Establishment arrests officials involved in land scam

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has registered nine cases against 38 people including three officials, and arrested two Revenue Department officials for illegally grabbing almost 4,100-kanal government land worth Rs one billion.

The arrested officials include District Officer (Revenue) Office Assistant Muhammad Siddique and Junior Clerk Sabir Shah. ACE Punjab Director General (DG) Hassan Nawaz Tarar has set up a special squad, which has started raids to arrest the accused.

Investigation Officer ACE Headquarters Assistant Director Asim Iftikhar Kamboh told Aaj Kal that Sheikhupura District Coordination Office Assistant Malik Muhammad Hayat and the two arrested officials transferred almost 4,100-kanal urban and agricultural land belonging to the government to different individuals through fake documentation. After the scam was unearthed, the Revenue Department officials cancelled 35 fake registries and nine bogus transfer deeds.

According to the ACE officials, the accused tampered the revenue record and produced fake sale deeds, causing a huge loss to the government exchequer. An investigation team official said the team had collected the proofs and is probing another scam involving 6,000-kanal government land worth billions of rupees.

Authorities said the registry record is under inspection and this has saved the government a loss of Rs one billion. Authorities said the accused officials had grabbed the government land after making fictitious entries in the registry record. The ACE has registered cases against this many people involved in a scandal for the first time in its history. The ACE DG said some people from Hyderabad in Sindh are also involved in the land scam. aaj kal report

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