KHAR: The political administration has arrested a senior education department official on charges of corruption and misuse of power, sources told Dawn on Saturday.

They said that assistant agency education offi cer Lawodan Khan had been detained on the orders of Bajaur Agency political agent Mohammad Yahya Akhoon Zada following receipt of complaints of corruption, kickbacks, unlawful utilisation and embezzlement of funds.

The sources said that the education offi cial was also allegedly involved in committing irregularities in selling of debris and other scrap materials of the damaged government educational institutions to relatives and friends.

They said that the education offi cial was also accused of receiving bribe from teachers and other employees of education department for their transfers and leaves.

When contacted, agency education offi cer Saeed Gul confi rmed the arrest of assistant agency education offi cer, but said that he had no knowledge of the charges framed against the detained offi cial.

He said the political agent and other senior offi cials of the administration had received various complaints from the local residents about misuse of power by Lawodan Khan.

An offi cial of the political administration told Dawn that an inquiry committee consisting of offi cials from education department and local administration would be formed till Monday to investigate the charges against the detained education offi cer.

He said that functioning of the education department had been marred by mismanagement over the past several years.

The offi cial said that the administration had also received several complaints against offi cials of different departments and that serious action would be taken against them if they were guilty of any wrongdoing.

Published in Dawn, November 16th , 2014