SARGODHA: Anti-Corruption Establishment Director Babar Aman Babar got a corruption case registered against 39 officers of the forest department on Wednesday for alleged embezzlement of timber worth Rs36 million.

Reports said the officers had drawn a huge amount from the public exchequer for plantation of saplings in the spring season during the last three to five years, but not a single sapling was planted.

Apart from it, the number of trees was assessed more than the actual counting in Hujan village in 2005-6, but the wrongdoing was not reported.

The officers involved in the embezzlement include former district forest officers Liaquat Ali Gill, Qazi Ilyas Bashir, Faisal Haroon, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, Altaf Bukhari, Mehr Muhammad Asif, range officer Malik Bashir and block officer Muhammad Yousaf.

It is learnt that the earlier inquiry conducted by the forest department had concealed the facts.

A PML-N leader of Sargodha had been involved in malpractice in timber some six years back, but the party influence had saved him any action.

It is for the first time that the ACE registered the corruption case against a large number of forest officers.

It is learnt the same PML-N leader, who was involved in the timber scam earlier, has once again seen active in saving the skin of the forest officers because he is earning a lot on account of their undue favour. — Staff Reporter

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2014