Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: While General Musharraf is enjoying life abroad, a poor meter reader of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) has been punished for allegedly disclosing Musharraf’s power-theft scandal to the media.
The Iesco has withheld his salary and other outstanding arrears for the last six months. Musharraf had constructed a modern house on the farmland, ostensibly obtained for breeding poultry and growing vegetables and was enjoying the cheapest of power tariffs, a D-2(1) connection, which is meant for agricultural tube-wells and lift irrigation pumps and was even subsidised by the government from the taxpayers’ money.
The scandal hit the headlines a few months ago but instead of recovering the money from the owner of the property, meter reader Manzoor Shah is being blamed for leaking this report to the media and ultimately he is facing the wrath of the high-ups of the company.
Details reveal that Manzoor Shah has not been paid his salary since May 2009 without assigning any reason. “Neither I am being paid the monthly salary nor my outstanding dues have been cleared,” said Manzoor Shah while talking to The News. He mentioned that Iesco was holding him responsible for the disgrace of the ex-general and other elites.
He said in an old case he had won the court battle against the Iesco and the court had directed the body to pay his three-year salary but it was being delayed. He has also written to the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of this victimisation, as he is a poor man drawing a paltry Rs 6,599 per month salary.
Iesco spokesman Ameer Hussain Chamman said it was not in his knowledge that anybody was being victimised. He said if anyone’s salary has been stopped or if anyone is facing any problem then he could write an application to the CEO and his problems would be addressed.
Iesco had also punished 64 other junior officers for their involvement in the power-theft scandal of General (retd) Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz and others in the luxurious Chak Shahzad farm houses but the big guns had not been touched. |