September 30, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 2008

NAUSHAHRO FEROZE, Sept 29: A pir allegedly swindled Rs40,000 each from two individuals reportedly his disciples after promising to arrange for them jobs in the provincial education department.

The two men, Niaz Ahmed, and Mohammad Aslam, staged a protest demonstration at the Naushahro Feroze press club here on Monday and also showed copies of offer letters issued bearing the signature of the Sindh education secretary.

Narrating their ordeal, they told the newsmen that they were the disciples of the Pirs of Ranipur. In April 2008 Pir Abdul Jabbar Shah told them that he could get them employed in the education department as junior clerks for Rs40,000 each.They claimed that Pir Abdul Jabbar Shah took Rs25,000 as advance payment with an assurance that the remaining amount would be collected at the time of handing over of the appointment orders.

They said that on August 10, Pir Abdul Jabbar along with Sikandar Ali alias Sheedi and Niaz Khaskheli came to them and gave one offer letter for the post of junior clerk and told, they would get other orders in a few days and demanded to pay the remaining amount of Rs55,000.

The young men said that since Niaz had received his offer letter bearing the signature of Education Secretary Rizwan Ahmed, they did not hesitate in paying the remaining amount.

However, when Niaz Ahmed went to the office of the executive district officer (education) with the offer letter, the official called the police and he was arrested.

Subsequently, the relatives of Niaz went to Ranipur and requested the pir to return them the money he had received and to help them out of the situation. The pir bluntly refusing to extend his assistance in this regard asked them to lodge complaint against him anywhere.

They protesting youth said that their relatives went to Ranipur on Saturday and took out a rally against their pir.

They said that they had also approached the DPO Naushahro Feroze, DPO Khairpur, DIG and RPO Sukkur in this connection. The RPO has forwarded their complaint to the DPO Naushahro Feroze and also constituted a committee to probe into the matter.

Interestingly, when this scribe contacted DPO Nisar Memon, the official said that he did not remember whether or not he had received any such complaint forwarded by the RPO Sukkur.

They appealed to the president, prime minister, Sindh chief minister for their intervention and to punish the culprits. They said that they would commit self-immolation at the grave of Benazir Bhutto on Eid Day if action was not taken and their money was not recovered.