BAHAWALNAGAR: Two School Education Department (SED) officials, along with the owners of two private firms, have been found guilty of embezzling Rs7.6 million meant for the maintenance and repair of schools, Dawn has learnt.

Sources from the SED revealed that Umair Ahmad, headmaster of the Government High School, Rampura, embezzled Rs5.7m from an additional grant allocated to the school, with the help of teacher Muhammad Sadiq Tabussam.

An inquiry was initiated after uproar on social media about the alleged corruption.

According to a fact-finding report, both officials were found guilty of corruption. A letter from the education chief executive officer on June 27 recommended suspending their services under the Peeda Act 2006.

Further investigations uncovered that accounts officer Muhammad Sajid from the Bahawalnagar accounts office embezzled Rs1.9m from the additional grant allocated to the Government Higher Secondary School of Dunga Bunga.

Although a grant of Rs7 million was requested, only Rs1.9m was provided. The funds were neither used by the school principal nor returned to the department. Instead, the amount was transferred to the accounts of two private firms, Sarmad Traders and Nauman Traders, through forged signatures.

Bahawalnagar Deputy Commissioner Zulfiqar Ahmad constituted a three-member inquiry committee to probe the matter. The committee confirmed that accounts officer Sajid was involved in the scam and that the embezzled funds were sent to Sarmad Traders and Nauman Traders.

On July 9, CEO Shahida Hafeez applied to the district police for criminal proceedings against the firms, but no action was taken until the filing of this report.

SED sources claimed that the firm owners had returned the embezzled amount to the department. However, the sources also alleged that the real owners of these firms were SED and accounts office officials, causing proceedings against the firm owners to stall.

They called for a transparent investigation into the large-scale embezzlement of the additional Rs19 million grant provided for the Bahawalnagar district.

When contacted, CEO Hafeez, who was transferred on July 26, confirmed the embezzlement of the Rs7.6m grant allocated to the two schools.

She said the firms had returned Rs1.9m to the department after the application for criminal proceedings was submitted to the police.

Additional CEO Usman was unavailable for comment.

JAILED: A local court has sentenced a fake spiritual healer to five years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs1.1 million on him in Haroonabad.

The Faqirwali police registered a case against Javed on the complaint of Kusar Parveen of Mohalla Ahmadnagar Faqirwali, under sections 334, 338 and 419 of the Pakistan Penal Code on June 22, 2019.

The FIR stated that the spiritual healer thrashed the woman in an attempt to exorcise a genie from her.

Civil Judge Fraz Ahmed announced the verdict.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2024