04 November 2004	Thursday	20 Ramazan 1425

MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 3: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir cabinet has approved the formation of the Revenue Officers and Staff Foundation and Forestry Foundation.

The meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat, directed the officials concerned to prepare laws about welfare bodies for passage in the next assembly session.

The cabinet also formed a ministerial committee to hold talks with representatives of employees who have threatened to observe a state-wide strike on Tuesday against the Ehtesab Bureau's "arrests and investigations".

Another committee was formed to finalize amendments in the accountability law for ratification in the next assembly session.

The cabinet approved allocation of a special medical seat for tehsil Haveli in Bagh district keeping in view its backwardness. Earlier, Neelum and Leepa valleys in Muzaffarabad district had such special seats.

Through a resolution, the cabinet appreciated Pakistan government efforts for the launching of a bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and expressed the hope that it would prove beneficial for the Kashmiris. However, it reiterated that Kashmiris would never accept passport and visa conditions for travelling across the LoC.

The cabinet also prayed for the early recovery of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

It also expressed grief over the death of Mian Mohammad Sharif, former MLA Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf and Sardar Gul Zaman Khan and offered condolences to the bereaved families.

EMBEZZLEMENT: The AJK Ehtesab Bureau has claimed to have unearthed an embezzlement to the tune of Rs5.36 million in the office of land acquisition collector of the district of Muzaffarabad during 2001-03, the bureau believes that the amount of embezzlement may go up with investigations going back to 1985.

The scam came to fore after Mohammad Ishaq, a resident of Baglota village, stated in a complaint to the bureau that the highways department had determined the compensation of a portion of his shop, to be demolished for the widening of road, at Rs5,737. However, Sudhir Mughal, a clerk in that office, prepared a cheque for Rs103,757 in his name, allegedly in connivance with the then collector.

The cheque was brought to him and drawn from bank by Ashfaq Abbasi, a ward boy in the CMH Muzaffarabad, of which he was given Rs3,757 whereas the remaining amount was embezzled by them.

The complainant informed the bureau that there were many other instances in which public money was plundered in a similar fashion.

Acting on application, the bureau constituted a team which held a routine audit of the record for the period 2001-03 and was found that at least 27 such cheques were issued during that period, robbing the national exchequer of Rs5.36 million, bureau's officials told newsmen at a briefing.

All the cheques were open which is a violation of government rules, but in the cash book the nature of the cheques was wrongly entered as crossed, said the officials, including spokesman Asrar Ayub, director anti-corruption Dr Liaqat Hussain and deputy director Raja Shafqat Tanvir.