Lahore : In a development that should have been made much before , the Punjab government has removed , Amjad Hafeez , a 19-grade official , who was alleged of pushing the province into the on-going wheat and flour crisis, as DG Food and Cane Commissioner Punjab.
As DG Food , Amjad Hafeez , had developed his own formula based on like and dislike to reward or punish any flour millers . Instead of following a transparent system , he picked -up a group of flour millers mostly from Lahore with whom he allegedly cluded to give them undue financial benefit through unreasonable quota of wheat releases and flour permits. He completely ignored flour millers of South and upper Punjab for the release of wheat quota from the government stocks.
A group of South mills had raised the issue with chief minister Punjab some two months ago in writing wherein it levelled serious allegations against Amjad Hafeez . This was followed by Rawalpindi Flour Mills’s long list of allegations against Amjad Hafeez. The office bearers of Rawalpindi Flour mils Association levelled serious corruption allegations against Amjad Hafeez’s department and announced closure of the flour mills in the Rawalpindi region.
Although , Amjad Hafeez , was accused of misuse of the power and corruption as DG Food by various flour mills, but he kept on sailing as he allegedly enjoyed protection of some powerful lobby.
Amjad Hafeez not only alleged of pushing the province in the wheat / flour crisis , but was also alleged of damaging sugar sector by targeting some sugar industries , which did not bow down to his wishes.
A Lahore – based sugar miller who alleged Amjad Hafeez of conspiring against his industrial unit faced hard time. The aggrieved sugar industrialist, who had been twice chairman of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), brought alleged wrongdoings of Amjad Hafeez into the notice of CDF , Syed Asim Munir , and President , Asif Zardari , through appeals wherein the official was accused of targeting his sugar mill for forcing him to default on banks’ loan and later sell it to some member of the powerful lobby.
Since allegations of some flour millers and the sugar industrialist are of serious nature like corruption , misuse of power and violation of the rules to give financial benefits to some Lahore- based flour mills , some anti corruption departments are already looking into the allegations levelled against Amjad Hafeez. But there is an urgent need to investigate which flour mills were given undue wheat quota and flour permits during Amjad Hafeez tenure as DG Food and Agriculture , Punjab.