LAHORE, July 3: The Punjab IGP is said to have taken a serious notice of the release of an advance cheque of Rs10 million for a housing society by the Faisalabad SSP and has constituted a high-level committee to probe the matter.

The IGP has reportedly constituted the committee after summoning SSP Zafar Iqbal Lak, related to a top political family in the province, to explain position two days ago, sources informed Dawn on Thursday.

They said the committee had been constituted under Additional IGP, Special Branch, Saadatullah Khan. It included CID DIG Tariq Khosa, Development AIG Khan Beg and Finance AIG Asghar Raza Gardezi.

Sources said the IGP had asked the committee members to visit Faisalabad personally to check record of the housing society and the land shown to have been purchased for it.

The SSP was found creating the housing society for his subordinates in the district. His immediate boss, DIG Rana Altaf Qamar, reported the matter to the IGP to ascertain who had permitted the scheme.

The IGP, while expressing his ignorance about any such scheme, had constituted a two-member committee comprising Additional IGP Khalid Latif and DIG Welfare Javed Noor to look into the matter.

The committee summoned the SSP who could not allegedly explain under whose orders he had initiated the scheme with the official police welfare fund. He was asked to withdraw Rs18 million which he had allegedly paid to the sellers of the land.

But instead of obeying the directions, the SSP issued an advance cheque (of July 7, 2003) for Rs10 million, prompting the IGP to summon him to Lahore and constitute another committee for a thorough probe.