GH Farooqui
CHITRAL: Subdivisional officer (SDO) of Communication and Works (C&W) Department Atiq Farooq has alleged that Deputy Commissioner Lower Chitral Hasan Abid illegally picked him up by Levies personnel and detained him in his office.
Mr Farooq has filed an application in the court of senior civil judge through his lawyer Aftab Rahim against the incident. The court directed the area police to submit a report within a week.
Mr Farooq in his application stated that on May 24 Chitral Levies personnel in uniform came to his official residence and told him that the DC has called him.
The SDO told them that he was to appear in a local court in connection with a case and would not be able to see the DC before 11am.
But the Levies personnel without any warrant forcibly took him to the DC office where they first detained him in the room of the DC’s personal assistant and then in the guard room for four hours.
“As I started feeling unwell, I called some local PTI leaders and lawyers and requested them to ask the DC about the reasons for my detention. On their intervention, I was let off,” he told ChitralToday.
He also said that soon afterwards, he refused to attend a meeting chaired by MPA Wazirzada in the presence of the DC at the DC office.
When ChitralToday correspondent approached the DC and asked him about the allegations, he rejected them and said how could he detain a grade 17 officer.
The DC said that the secretary good governance had told him that funds meant for maintenance and repair (MR) of roads had been misused in Chitral and an inquiry should be held.
The DC said on the direction of the commissioner Malakand, he had asked the SDO to present records of the MR funds utilized in Chitral during 2018-21.
The DC said Rs30 million had been spent under the MR funds a few years back and Rs7m were utilized just last year.
The DC said the SDO had been asked to clarify where and how these huge funds were spent when the Garam Chashma road, Bumburate road, Chitral-Booni roads along with the road from Drosh to Chitral town had already been handed over to the National Highway Authority (NHA).
However, the SDO has not yet filed the details, the DC said, adding he has asked the concerned quarters for an inquiry into the utilization of the funds.