Probe into misuse of official vehicles by DC Chitral sought
CHITRAL: Chairman of Human Rights Foundation Chitral Niaz A. Niazi Advocate along with Prof Muhammad Dost called upon caretaker chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to order an inquiry against the deputy commissioner of Chitral for misusing two official vehicles by sending them to Hyderabad Sindh for use by his family there.
Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr Niazi said in order to ensure a transparent inquiry the government should suspend Irshad Sodhar from the post of the deputy commissioner Chitral.
He said the government should take immediate notice of the misuse of officials Vigo (A-1200) and Corolla (A-1169) by the family members of the deputy commissioner sitting over 2,300 km away from Chitral.
He said the DC had the power to probe and even terminate his employees but he had no authority to send a government employee to his home in a far-off province and keep him there to serve his family without providing him basic need of life such as accommodation along with two official vehicles.
He said no officer occupying an executive post was exempted from accountability and the DC should be probed for alleged misuse of official property. He also said that by not providing accommodation to his own employee working at his house the DC had violated basic human right of the employee.
He regretted that when the driver, Kashif Uddin, went public against the misuse of official vehicles by the DC, the latter accused the father of the driver of embezzling government funds in repairing official vehicles at his workshop. He said in a press release the DC contended that the driver had been sacked for rash driving and damaging official vehicles under the influence of drugs after holding a proper inquiry.
However, the DC did not deny that two official vehicles were being misused by his family in Hyderabad. He pointed out that if Kashif was a drug addict how the DC employed him as a driver in his home. –Muhkam Uddin Ayuni
(Published in ChitralToday on June 6, 2018).