QAZI SHOAIB KHAN
ATTOCK, JAN 26 /DNA/ – Sohail Zafar Chatta Director General Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Department Punjab has directed regional directors and all circles officers of the province including District Attock comply with orders of Lahore High Court Bahawalpur Bench and launch crack down besides initiating legal proceedings against revenue officers and Patwaris found involved in hiring the services of private persons for the performance of their official duties. The anti-corruption officers were also directed to file their weekly report to the Head quarters.
The well placed sources of Anti Corruption Establishment Department Punjab told that it was also pointed out that despite the issuance of directions by the LHC, Bahawalpur bench, the practice of hiring the services of private persons for the performance of official duties was continues and complaints were being received from the general public in particular.
According to the letter, the authority has taken serious notice of this practice and issued directions to ensure the compliance of above-mentioned order in letter and spirit under intimation to this HQ. ACE Director General, Mr. Sohail Zafar Chatta ordered the regional directors to send reports to the headquarters office every week regarding the implementation of the court decision. It should be noted that Lahore High Court Bahawalpur Bench while passing judgment on the petition filed by Rafiq Ahmed ordered that the ACE DG should take legal action against those Patwaris who were hiring private persons to carry out their government affairs.
Consequently, the Board of Revenue, Punjab issued directions to all Deputy Commissioners in Punjab to ensure that no private person/munshi are working in Patwar Khana. If they find guilty of a violation of the above orders/instructions, the concerned revenue officer would be responsible. The office will take disciplinary action against him along with penal action against the concerned Mushi / private person.
Sources further said, that in line with other parts of the province, Deputy Commissioner Attock was also once again directed to ensure strict compliance with the orders of the Hon’ble Lahore High Court, Lahore, and Board of Revenue, Punjab. If any private person/munshi, they found engaged/working in Patwar Khana during a surprise inspection, the office will lodge an FIR against the munshi. The office will also take disciplinary action against the concerned patwari. Earlier, High Court Bahawalpur Bench has declared that no privately engaged person shall be permitted to work in the revenue set-up or to have access to the record. Justice Chaudhary Abdul Aziz, in his detailed judgment, ordered the senior member of the Board of Revenue (BoR) to make sure that offices set up by the patwaris in private buildings hired by them are immediately shifted to official premises. The Punjab anti-corruption director general was directed to initiate proceedings against patwaris involved in hiring private persons for performing their official duties. “This court is not oblivious of the fact that the immediate removal of privately engaged persons from revenue offices will cause discomfort to the general public,” the judge observed. “It will not be out of context to state here that hiring the services of private persons and establishing of Patwarkhanas in private buildings obtained through personal financial resources is a luxury, which by all means is not commensurate with the salary of a patwari and indicates the prevalent corruption in revenue offices. “Since the services of a Munshi are hired by the patwari through personal financial arrangements, thus for all practical purposes, he is a private person and not a public servant. Very often, such privately engaged persons are found involved in record tampering cases and even are burdened with the allegation of receiving illegal gratification but due to their status neither disciplinary proceedings can be initiated against them nor ACE can lay hands upon them,” the court declared. According to the verdict, is an astonishing idea to leave land record of citizens at the mercy of those who have no acceptable legal justification for their presence in the revenue offices. Meanwhile, during a survey of our scribe it was revealed that privately engaged persons were working in the revenue circles of Attock, Pindigheb, Fatehjang, Jand, Hazro and Hassanabdal while most of the Patwarkhanas, others were being run in private buildings acquired on rent by the patwaris through their own resources. Most of the applicants who visited Patwar Khanas for acquisition of land documents, mutation and registry of property complained that Munshis were present in Patwar Khanas as frontmen of Patwaris and demanded money for processing each paper. However, a senior officer of the Board of Revenue informed that several times orders had been issued to all patwaris to keep government records away from private munshis and ban their entry. A crackdown is being done against the private Munshis whereas the Patwar Khanas are being checked,” he maintained.
QAZI SHOAIB KHAN, SPECiAL CORRESPONDENT ATTOCK
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