Officials of the Anti-Corruption Establishment West Zone arrested on Tuesday an executive engineer of the Karachi Development Authority for “taking bribe”. Arif Raza, an officer of Grade-18 in the KDA, was appointed Surjani Town XEN a month ago. He was working at the KDA Surjani Town site office in Scheme-41. An XEN is the custodian of the area where they are deputed. They have control over all layout and site plans of that particular area. The ACE team took the KDA officer to its District Central circle office. ACE Central District Circle in-charge Zahid Rahujo said the KDA officer was taken into custody for receiving bribe from a party. Officials found him in possession of Rs25,000 cash and a cheque of Rs175,000, according to Rahujo. A case was registered against him and further investigation underway. Kamal Shaikh, who works as a clerk at the KDA Surjani Town office, told media that the ACE authorities didn’t raid the site office. They might have arrested the KDA officer from outside the office, he said. Shaikh said that after taking the charge, XEN Raza had restricted the KDA anti-encroachment department from taking action against land grabbers in Surjani Town. In his first meeting, Shaikh said, the official had ordered that none of the KDA anti-encroachment department officials would conduct an operation without his permission. XEN Raza was previously deputed at Gulistan-e-Jauhar Scheme-24 and -36 site offices. He had been suspended on corruption charges in 2019 too. During his posting in Gulistan-e-Jauhar in 2018, ACE East zone officials had raided the site office and took some land record with them. Raza had taken the charge as KDA Surjani Town XEN a month ago, after remaining suspended for a year.
