MIANWALI, June 21: The police have unearthed a pension fraud case of hefty amount which was withdrawn from the government kitty with the connivance of officials of Irrigation Department and District Accounts Office.

A local NBP's branch manager came to know that Hakim Khan, the son of Sardar Khan of Ghundi village, had never been an Irrigation department employee, but he had been drawing pension for the last 17 years.

The manager called District Account Officer Anwar Hussain Chaudhry on the payment day. The DAO not only testified the bogus payment but also handed over the fake pensioner to the police.

The City police booked Hakim Khan under sections 420, 468 and 471 PPC.

During interrogation, accused Hakim Khan revealed that in 1988 Umer Daraz Khan, an Irrigation department peon who has died now, had taken him and his four relatives - Muazzam Khan, Shah Alam, Muhammad Khan and Gul Khan to head-clerk Habibullah Khan, who has retired as well.

He said the head-clerk told them that he would only take commutation amount from them and that they would keep receiving pension till their death. Within a fortnight, they had received their pension books. All the five people were shown as two masons, a gardener and a baildar.

They all got commutation amount between Rs140,000 and Rs150,000. The entire amount of Rs740,000 had been given to the head-clerk. At the time of retirement, all the five accused were drawing Rs500 each per month pension, which has now increased to Rs1,300 per month.

City police sub-inspector Muhammad Ashraf Ranjha told newsmen that head-clerk Habibullah Khan and his namesake senior auditor Habibullah Khan (now retired) and four accused pensioners were at large. He also said that several more cases were expected to be surfaced after their arrest.

Compainant DAO Anwar Hussain told newsmen that it was not the only fraud case which had been surfaced. In 1997, Rs350 million had been paid in commutation and pension out of the Pakistan Rangers accounts.

Similarly, he claimed that heavy amounts had also been paid from the accounts of Railway and Irrigation departments. The DAO, however, came clean that the Accounts Office staff had always been the partaker in such fraud cases.

In the recent fraud case, Anwar Hussain alleged that his senior auditor Habibullah and other DAO officials were equally involved, who would prepare bogus pension cases within 10 to 15 days.

The DAO claimed that the bank was not responsible in this bogus payment of pension and commutation because the Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) were being issued by the District Accounts Office.

The police have taken a five-day physical remand of accused Hakim Khan and more sensational revelations were expected after the arrest of the head-clerk and the retired senior auditor.