November 26, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 20, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 25: Acting on the recommendations of the inquiry committees, the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) administration has penalized officials involved in the library scam, reliable sources told Dawn.

The three officials — librarian Ms Zummurd Mehmood, assistant librarian Jan Mohammad Charan and superintendent accounts Mohammad Arif — have been handed down various punishments.

It is worth mentioning here that the decision about Parveen Liaquat, the dean of the faculty of sciences, whose involvement was also confirmed by three subsequent inquiry committees constituted in the last one year to probe into the scam, had been withheld by the varsity highups, due to unknown reasons.

In this regard, the sources said, Ms Zummurd Mehmood, who originally was put forward for demotion from grade 19 to 18 by the inquiry committee, had all her increments withdrawn which she had got while serving in grade 19. She was working as a librarian when the library funds were misused.

Mohammad Arif, who was superintendent accounts of library, when the misappropriation of funds took place, had been handed down forced retirement as punishment.

The sources said Mr Arif had already applied for premature retirement and the decision of the inquiry committee had provided relief to him.

The assistant librarian, Jan Mohammad Charan, had also been put up for demotion from grade 17 to 16, but had his increments withdrawn as punishments.

Responding to a query, the sources said although three consecutive inquiry committees had confirmed the involvement of the dean of the faculty of sciences in corruption, the varsity’s highups seemed reluctant to hold Parveen Liaquat responsible for the scam.

A source told Dawn that reduction in the proposed punishments of the accused had only been made after they threatened to go public about Ms Parveen.

Record showed that over a period of three years — 1998 to 2001 — these library officials misused Rs10 million (total library budget for the said three years was more than Rs10 million) in connivance with a Islamabad-based bookseller.

They made heavy purchases, including outdated old editions of extremely expensive encyclopaedias, from the bookseller who was not even registered with the Ministry of Education.