Govt suspends tainted Naushahro Feroze DC four days after he checks out of country.

HYDERABAD -- The Sindh government suspended a day before the Naushahro Feroze deputy commissioner Tashfeen Alam, who was involved in suspicious transactions of over Rs2 billion funds meant for acquiring land for M6 Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project, four days after the officer flew away to Azerbaijan.

The officer had reportedly gone abroad on Nov 19 and the provincial Services, General Administration and Coordination Department (SGA and CD) issued the suspension orders on Nov 22 while the federal Establishment Division was said to have suspended Alam for 120 days according to a notification that went viral on Wednesday.

Sources said that a charge-sheet was to be communicated to the officer as per Nov 22 notification after the government received report of the committee it had formed to scrutinize record on the alleged suspicious transactions of funds the National Highway Authority had given for land acquisition for M6 project.

The notification said the DC had disappeared from office and Shaheed Benazirabad divisional commissioner had reported to the SGA and CD that the officer had not attended his official duties for past four days.

The officer was involved in 'suspicious transactions' of over Rs2bn NHA funds for M6 land acquisition

The committee headed by Sajjad Hyder, director general of Labour Sindh; with Tariq Shah, director general of Training, Management and Research, and Umar Farooq Bullo, a senior officer, as members was probing the matter in Naushahro Feroze.

The sources said that the DC had appointed himself as Land Acquisition Officer (LAO), a task which was mostly assigned to assistant commissioner concerned, for acquisition of land. According to initial reports, 850 landowners were given payment in cash through bank after their lands were acquired under Land Acquisition Act 1894.

'Serious procedural violations are clear like payment in cash to landowners. According to NHA officials they have not received any copy of the award so far from the office concerned that indicates as if the award has perhaps not been passed here too like Matiari,' said an official. The payments for the land acquisition were being made in Naushahro Feroze since June 2022, said the sources.

'A lump sum amount was passed for the award (of payments) although it was always passed separately in favour of each khatedar,' said a source. The amount of over Rs2bn had been withdrawn on eight different dates since June 2022, said the source.

'The DC got himself...