Jungle at a cost!

Salim Khan: Innocent until proven guilty[/caption]

By Zulfiqar Ahmad
ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: An influential politician from Lotkoh in Chitral has purchased a huge chunk of jungle worth Rs8 million in Arandu in collusion with a former tehsil nazim of the area, it has been learnt.
Sources privy to the development told chitraltoday.net that the former nazim, Sher Mohammad, had worked as a middleman in the purchase of the land by Salim Khan, the KPK minister for population welfare. However, many people in the area said the former nazim would even put the politician in hot water after the change of the PPP government.
The purchase of a property by any citizen anywhere in the country is not illegal but questions arise as to how the minister had been able to spend so much money on the purchase of the land.
The sources claimed that the politician had earned ill-gotten money though selling government jobs etc. A source close to the minister who wished not to be named revealed that an official of the social welfare department was acting as a middleman for the politician to strike ‘illegal’ deals on his behalf.
He claimed that both the official and his boss were cognizant to the fact that they would never get such an opportunity to make money again.
When this correspondent contacted the minister Salim Khan on his cellphone to get his version on the allegations, he did not respond. Even text messages sent to his cellphone mentioning the purpose of the phone call went unanswered.

]]>