January 28, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 24, 1423

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BAHAWALPUR, Jan 27: The Bahawalpur bench of the Lahore High Court has directed the general manager of the Allied Bank to hold an inquiry into agriculture loans scandal.

The directives were issued on a writ petition filed by around 100 account holders of ABL’s Hatejhi branch near Ahmadpur East.

The petitioners submitted that they were defrauded by bank manager Majid Ahmed Khan, accountant Akhtar Thaheem and cashier Iqbal Ahmad with the connivance of Nadra representative Saifullah and officials of the revenue department.

They submitted that the accused had collected their NICs and the revenue record of their lands and issued agriculture loans in their names. Bank manager Majid Ahmed escaped after drawing hundreds of thousands of rupees from the accounts of a number of clients.

The fraud surfaced after the posting of new manager when recovery notices were issued to around 100 small land holders, under whose name agriculture loans were fraudulently issued. Each farmer was released Rs50,000 bogus loan each with forged documents.

OBSERVATION CELL: Security at the new Central Jail of Bahawalpur will be beefed up by setting up an observation cell there.

This was stated by additional home secretary Capt Fazal Asghar (retired) during the inspection of the jail on Monday.

He said that the cell will be attached with a network of close circuit cameras. This will help to keep a constant watch on the movements of inmates within the wards and various sections of the jail.

Mr Asghar distributed certificates among the prisoners who passed various examinations during their detention.

Jail Superintendent Munir Hutiyana informed the additional secretary that prisoner Sajjad Mahmood topped in the LLB third part examination conducted by the Islamia University, Bahawalpur.

The superintendent said there were 2,281 inmates, including 21 women, in the jail.