12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

MUZAFFARABAD, May 11: AJK Ehtesab Bureau on Tuesday filed a reference in the accountability court No I against three health department officials for allegedly embezzling Zakat money meant for the treatment of poor and needy patients.

The officials, the then district health officer (now Director Health Services), Dr Qurban Mir, the incumbent DHO, Mallick Mohammad Ishaq, and accountant Abdul Rashid Mir, were charged in the reference with withdrawing excess amount from the bank on fake applications of Zakat recipients but recording lesser amount in the cash book, a spokesman for the bureau said.

According to the spokesman, every year the district health office is provided with a sizable amount for medical treatment of deserving persons and its utilization has been clearly defined through a government notification.

He said though the amount was shown to have been spent on Zakat receivers but in fact this had not happened. Some of the persons in whose name the amount had been withdrawn from the bank never existed whereas others were given money in hundreds but the disbursement shown to them in the cash book ran into thousands, he said.

The amount was embezzled for personal use, without recording it in the income and expenditure head of the cash book, the spokesman said. The accused were arrested by the Bureau during the investigations into the case, and their bail applications were rejected by the Ehtesab Court.

However, they were released by the High Court with a condition to deposit the embezzled money in the Ehtesab Bureau account. The spokesman said the accused had been summoned by the Ehtesab Court, headed by Mallick Abdur Rasheed, on May 31 when they would be provided with the copies of the reference.