MULTAN: An anti-corruption court on Tuesday extended the remand of five employees of the Punjab Constabulary (PC) till Sept 8 in a case of financial embezzlement.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had lodged a first information report (FIR) on Aug 31 under Section 5(2)47 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections 461, 468, 471, 420, 467 and 409 of Pakistan Penal Code against 30 employees of PC and the district accounts office on the complaint of Battalion No 3 Commander Senior Superintendent of Police Mehmoodul Hasan. The complainant said the suspects prepared fake suspension and subsequent restoration orders of ghost PC employees and transferred salaries of those ‘employees’ into secret accounts by preparing fake bills.

He said a fact-finding team had been constituted that found that secret bank accounts in the name of some employees of Battalion No 3 were opened with the connivance of district accounts office employees. Fake suspension and subsequent restoration orders of the employees were created by entering fictitious dates of suspension and restoration, and fake salary bills of the duration of suspension were prepared by clerk Abdul Jabbar Shah, junior clerks Azam and Rasheed Ahmad, Naib Qasid Munir, Sajjad Pittafi and Arshad.

Hasan said his signatures were faked on the salary bills that were submitted to the district accounts officer with the connivance of accounts staff. He claimed Naib Qasid Munir, who is in Saudi Arabia for Haj, told him on the phone that everything was done with the connivance of Azam, Pittafi, District Accounts Officer III Bashir Ahmed, senior auditor Mudassir Dareshak, auditor Tahir Bukhari, Shakeel and Adnan of the district accounts office, and the staff there was receiving its share. He further said Azam told him that after preparing the bills with the help of Shakeel and Adnan he handed them over to Dareshak and Bukhari.

Five of the suspects, including Abdul Jabbar, Azam, Muhammad Ali Shah, Rahim Bakhsh and Zaffar Iqbal, had been handed over to the ACE and produced before the court on Aug 31 that granted their five-day remand. On Tuesday, the court extended their remand for three more days.

According to sources, Rs39.4 million had been embezzled over one year through fake documents of 93 employees. However, they believe the actual amount was more than Rs200 million and more people were involved in the case.

District Accounts Officer Mirza Sikandar Baig said he had written a letter to the high-ups suggesting a departmental inquiry against the suspects working in the office. So far, no employee had been suspended and any action against any suspects would be taken in the light of an inquiry report.

ACE Director Gohar Mushtaq Bhutta said the establishment will write a letter to the Punjab accountant general for suspension of the suspected employees. Investigations were under way and evidence being collected, while all suspects would be arrested and suspended from service when proven guilty. He said some suspected employees of the accounts office had managed to get protective bail.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2017