LAHORE: The Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department has uncovered alleged financial irregularities in Rs55 million public funds and recommended recovery of some Rs34 million from the former secretary of the department and his four subordinates on account of flawed procurement and fraudulent misappropriation of funds.

The Punjab government had allocated Rs50m for holding the celebrations in connection with 982nd Urs of Data Ganj Bakhsh, along with 14th International Tassawaf Conference, besides Rs5m for the celebration of Eid Miladun Nabi for 2024-25.

A detailed special audit report, available with Dawn, calls for recovery of Rs17.866m from the former secretary, administrator and manager of the department; and Rs5m, as well as Rs11.311m from the ex-secretary, director-general and assistant director.

Following the audit and its recommendations, the incumbent Auqaf department secretary has ordered proceedings under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (Peeda) Act 2006 against former assistant director (religious affairs) Hafiz Javaid Shaukat, former administrator of Auqaf, Lahore, Sheikh Jameel Ahmad and former manager of Data Darbar, Tahir Maqsood, through two separate orders.

Audit report recommends recovery from ex-secretary, his four subordinates

Auqaf Deputy Secretary (Admin)/Director Finance Ms Alvina Faiz has been appointed as inquiry officer.

Meanwhile, former administrative secretary/Auqaf chief administrator Dr Tahir Raza Bukhari, is accused of violating the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, bypassing the cabinet powers, while invoking “Urgency” for a regular Urs event, allowing exemptions, posting a lower-grade officer against a senior post and ignoring use of open cheques and cash for payments.

Sources in the Auqaf department say that Dr Bukhari gave additional chargeof the BS-20 post of director general (religious affairs) to a BS-18 officer, Khalid Mahmood Sindhu, without orders of the S&GAD, allegedly to get approvals from the junior officer. Mr Sindhu continued holding the additional charge of the BS-20 post for over a year.

The ex-secretary is also being blamed for abolishing the director finance seat, responsible for audit/budget scrutiny, and Mr Sindhu, Director Estate, was given charge of the post of director finance too, who continued exercising financial powers.

The audit report holds Dr Bukhari accountable for invoking “Urgency” and granting exemption from rules for expenditure – a prerogative of the Punjab Cabinet – leading to the utilisation of Rs4.99m from allocated Rs5m funds for the celebrations of Eid Miladun Nabi 2024-25.

Dr Bukhari had also invoked “urgency” and allowed exemption from the “Open Tendering” for utilisation of Rs50m funds – allocated for the Data Ganj Bakhsh Urs in 2025 – a regular annual event.

The ex-secretary, according to the audit report, had placed Rs20m and Rs30m funds in two separate bank accounts of Data Darbar Auqaf administrator and director administration, Punjab, respectively.

The incumbent administrative secretary has reportedly moved a summary to Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to seek approval for the conduct of the inquiry and action against the former secretary on the charges of misconduct and grave violations of financial rules and regulations.

Dr Bukhari is currently serving as consultant on institutional development at the Punjab Centre of Excellence on Countering Violent Extremism.

When asked about the allegations of invoking “Urgency” and posting a junior officer against a senior position, Dr Bukhari said it was not unusual to declare “Urgency” to perform jobs in a limited time span.

“The department had to invoke urgency as it received funds on July 27 and was required to organise a ceremony on August 8. It requires at least a month to proceed, while following the PPRA rules,” he said and added, “urgency was invoked quoting provisions in the PPRA Rules.”

About granting additional charge to junior officers, Dr Bukhari said similar precedents were also set by former secretaries of the department. He said he had granted additional charge to Mr Sindhu to run the affairs of the department using the available strength.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2026