LAHORE, Jan 26: The Public Accounts Committee-II of the Punjab Assembly has ordered action against eight police officials, including five SSPs, in an embezzlement case.

The committee, which met here on Wednesday to take up audit paras against the home department, directed the authorities to initiate action against Gujranwala SSPs Arif Akram, Ashraf Marth, Naseer Durrani, Ehsan Mahboob and Akhtar Hasan Khan, and ASPs Salman Azam Taimuri and Shafiq Ahmad under Removal from Service Ordinance 2000 for embezzling Rs1.056784 million. Asif Saeed Manais chaired the meeting.

Earlier, the department had informed the PAC that the case had been filed on a direction of the Gujranwala Anti-Corruption Establishment special judge after death of accountant Ghulam Sarwar, the only culprit identified by the department.

The PA body at its meeting on Aug 28, 2003 ordered formation of a fact-finding committee, headed by DIG Syed Saqlain Naqvi, to re-probe the case and report within 30 days.

However, the inquiry could not be completed even after a year as the PAC summoned the committee chief, Saqlain Naqvi, on Aug 30, 2004 to know reasons for the delay.

Absence of one member or the other was the reason Mr Naqvi presented before the committee, assuring it that the report would be finalized by Oct 5, 2004. The committee also wrote to the provincial police officer for completion of the report by the due date, pending the audit paras.