MIRPURKHAS: Several employees of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Mirpurkhas, whose personal files had reportedly gone missing over a year ago, fear someone may tamper with their official data to implicate them in fabricated cases.

Ghulam Ahmed Arain, deputy secretary of the BISE’s establishment branch that is responsible for handling the employees’ record, said that the branch’s in-charge had informed BISE chairman Barkat Ali A. Haidery last year that many files, including those containing communication with the National Accountability Bureau, provincial ombudsman, details of the meetings of the board of governors, finance committee, proceedings of appointment and promotion committee and personal files of over 20 employees had gone missing since they were handed over to the board’s acting secretary Anisuddin Siddique. His office had not yet returned the files, Mr Arain said.

The chairman had then ordered an inquiry into the files’ disappearance but to no avail. Many affected employees complained to him that their official documents were still in the possession of the acting secretary, said Mr Arain.

He alleged that the acting secretary had hatched a conspiracy to instigate employees against him by informing them that it was he who had passed on information about their appointment to NAB authorities, which were probing illegal appointments in the board.

He, therefore, submitted a written complaint to the chairman, DIG of Mirpurkhas, and other authorities concerned and informed them that a NAB reference was filed in accountability court Hyderabad against several board officers with regard to illegal appointments and a judgement had been passed against them in the past.

He said that NAB Karachi had obtained official record from the then secretaries, Barkat Qureshi and Rana Javed Yousuf, and the present acting secretary, Mohammad Siddique but the court never summoned him at any stage which proved that he was not custodian of the official record. Compliance of the judgement was in progress as per directives of the controlling authority, he said.

He said that all personal files of the employees, including the documents of NAB reference (No25/2016), were in the custody of the acting secretary, but the affected employees were holding him (Mr Arain) responsible, which was causing unbearable stress and mental torture to him. If anything happened to him, the acting secretary should be held responsible for it, he warned.

The acting secretary Mr Siddique was unavailable for comments.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2022