PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf again blocked the opposition’s move in the provincial assembly for probe into financial scam involving millions of rupees in the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through a special committee.

After holding a detailed discussion on a calling attention notice moved by Awami National Party lawmaker Khushdil Khan advocate on Friday, Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan, who was in the chair, put it to vote. The house rejected it.

The opposition members later staged a walkout to protest the treasury’s move.

Opposition members stage walkout demanding house panel to look into voucher scheme anomalies

The opposition insisted that the suspended managing director of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation, Zulfiqar Ahmad, had named adviser to the chief on education Ziaullah Bangash and secretary of the department Arshad Khan in the scandal.

“The government should suspend the CM adviser and education secretary forthwith to ensure transparent and impartial inquiry into the matter,” said opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani.

He said free inquiry was not possible until the adviser and secretary held their respective offices.

The government had turned down the demand of the opposition during the ongoing session to set up a parliamentary committee to probe the alleged irregularities in the Bus Rapid Transit project.

Khushdil Khan said the ESEF scandal had grabbed headlines, while its MD, Zulfiqar Ahmad, alleged in a memo that a bank fraud took place in the organisation in 2012 and that the defunct Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission had filed a corruption reference of Rs116 million in that respect.

The memo said serious irregularities were detected in Rokhana Pakhtunkhwa Taleemi (voucher) programme and the KPEC filed a reference against the corruption of Rs214 million against the deputy MD on Sept 17, 2018.

According to the MD, he found serious irregularities in the voucher scheme and that of 90 schools, 70 were found to be ghost. He claimed that 14,000 students were enrolled in the scheme of which 11,000 were not found and that a total of 41,000 students were enrolled in documents but after validation, 21,000 students were fake.

The MD claimed that an estimated amount of Rs230 million was misappropriated. He said that the provincial inspection team had conducted an inquiry and submitted its report to the chief minister, while the National Accountability Bureau had also initiated inquiry.

The memo said no audit of ESEF had been conducted since 2008.

Khushdil Khan said the ruling PTI’s slogan was ‘corruption-free Pakistan’ and therefore, the government should form a special committee of the house to investigate the matter.

He sought the chair’s ruling on the issue.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal member Inayatullah Khan said the government should not protect corrupt people and that it should accept the demand of the opposition to form a parliamentary committee to look into the matter as the ESEF MD had blamed irregularities on the CM adviser and secretary.

Mian Nisar Gul of the MMA said the government didn’t allow discussion on the ESEF scandal during the meeting of the standing committee on education. He alleged that the PTI was bulldosing its manifesto and was patronising corrupt people.

Responding to the opposition’s allegations, special assistant to the chief minister on science and technology Kamran Bangash said an inquiry was conducted into the matter, which held the MD responsible for fiasco in the foundation.

He said the MD was found to be incompetent in the report as the foundation had surrendered Rs3.2 billion due to his incompetency.

Mr Bangash said the MD got Rs1.4 million TA/DA though the foundation didn’t function properly.

The special assistant said 90 ghost schools were detected but the MD sanctioned Rs35.47 million for the voucher scheme.

He accused the MD of misusing his authority and said the departmental inquiry had already conducted into the matter.

Information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai opposed the call for forming a special committee to probe the matter saying the opposition doesn’t have solid evidence to prove charges and is criticising the government for the sake of criticism.

On a point of order, ANP MPA Faisal Zeb drew the government’s attention towards the death of six coalminers in Darra Adamkhel area and said four of the deceased were from Shangla and two from Swat.

He regretted that the government had yet to adopt appropriate measures in mines to protect the life of workers.

Minister Dr Amjad said a rescue team rushed to the site and retrieved bodies.

He said the government had formed a subcommittee to amend the law on mine safety.

The house passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Monitoring Authority Bill, 2019, was also introduced in the assembly, which was later adjourned until 1:30pm on Monday for the lack of quorum.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2019