LDA Official Accused of Keeping Female Officers at Work Until Late Night

A senior official at the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) is facing allegations of unprofessional behavior after female officers said they were kept at the office late into the night. According to the mother of a female employee, Zara Kashif, the Additional Director General of Headquarters Usama Majeed Cheema made her wait for nearly five hours during a meeting that was scheduled to last only an hour.

Kashif claimed she arrived at the office at 3 p.m., nearly three hours after the meeting was originally supposed to start at 2:30 p.m. The mother of Kashif's daughter arrived at the office carrying a relative, as her daughter had failed to return home by 10 p.m. Kashif's mother confronted Cheema, demanding to know why his daughter and other female officers were being kept at work so late.

Cheema denied the allegations, explaining that the delayed meeting was due to other official engagements. He also accused Kashif's mother and uncle of verbally abusing and threatening him when they entered his office. When asked about holding meetings after regular office hours, Cheema claimed that such delays were occasional and occurred due to official commitments rather than being a routine practice.