LAHORE: The Environment Protection Department (EPD) director general has written a letter to Punjab secretary environment for surrendering the services of Director Admin Tauqeer Ahmed Qureshi from the agency due to “extreme misconduct”.
In a letter written on April 16, EPD DG Tanveer Ahmed Waraich said that Qureshi was suspended because he had destroyed the official vehicle of the then-DG by pelting bricks during office hours and had created terror.
Waraich said that two FIRs [First Information Report] were registered against Qureshi on the complaint of the former EPA DG. Moreover, an inquiry of serious nature against him was pending in the office of Gujranwala commissioner and another inquiry was pending in the office of secretary archive, he added.
The letter also stated that there was no justification for restoration of his services as action under PEDA Act as well as with police was yet to be completed against him, but due to political interference he was reinstated.
“This office is unable to run official business smoothly in the presence of such blackmailer corrupt person. Instant application for withdrawing of letter issued by EPA director general dated 10-01-2020 and 20-01-2020 and exploitation for bribery by Director (A&M) EPA Tauqeer Ahmed Qureshi under criminal pressure of the alleged letter was received on 06-02-2020 from the affectees/applicants, owners of different resource recovery units. Allegation and content in the application were of very serious nature which required fort with thorough probe and appropriate action against the culprits,” the letter added.
Moreover, the EPD DG said that he has also suspended Qureshi. “He is immediately relived from Punjab EPA with recommendations to place his services again at the disposal of secretary services to repatriate him to his parent department, Public Health Engineering Department,” he said.
The EPD DG also requested S&GAD to post a PMS Officer as EPA director admin as per earlier practice on urgency basis.
Sources in EPD informed this scribe that Qureshi was a controversial officer in EPA due to his mischievous activities and different inquiries were initiated against him which were related to procurement of air pointers and demanding bribes from different people. They added that Qureshi was an influential officer and had good connections with politicians.
On the other-hand, Qureshi, while speaking to this scribe, dismissed all allegations upon him as baseless. “I was never involved in any kind of corruption. The decision of this letter is in the hand of secretary. I have no tussle with any officer in EPD. I do my work with dense honesty and I am the one who is closing the doors of corruption in EPD and this is the only reason that everyone is against me,” he said.
