Rawalpindi-In compliance with court orders, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has started process of collecting details of assets of deputy commissioner, administrators of Rawal and Potohar Towns, Chief Executive Officers of cantonment boards and their officials responsible for taking action against encroachers in the city, reliable sources told The Nation on Monday.

They said ACE Rawalpindi Region had received order of Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench Justice Ibad-ur-Rehman Lodhi and the Director Junaid Ibrahim had asked the staff to start the process of obtaining details of assets of officials in district administration and cantonment boards responsible for removing encroachments.

When contacted ACE Rawalpindi Director Junaid Ibrahim confirmed that he had received the order of the LHC. He said that he had handed over the orders to ACE SHO Sheikh Nasir for obtaining the information.

Justice Lodhi of the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench on January 10, directed the ACE and Director Federal Investigation Agency to initiate inquiry and obtain assets of the DC, executive officers of Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonments and other officials responsible for removal of encroachments in city and cantonment areas.

The court had directed the two directors to submit their responses on January 26.

The court had been hearing a contempt of court plea against managers of district government and cantonment boards for not implementing the court orders regarding removal of rampant encroachments in the garrison city.

A senior official of FIA Rawalpindi said that the agency had not so far received the orders from the court.

He said that the FIA would initiate the process as soon as they received the court orders.

Expressing annoyance over non-implementation of the court orders, Justice Lodhi remarked, “The public servants responsible for removal of encroachments and to provide other municipal facilities to the citizens are guilty of abusing their positions as public servants and reportedly this is being done by accepting pecuniary advantages.”

The court had directed the ACE and the FIA to collect details of the assets of the relevant officials as some of them had been living beyond their known sources of income.