LAHORE: The Punjab government has constituted a high-level fact finding inquiry committee to investigate and fix responsibilities for alleged massive embezzlement of funds in the accounts of the Police Training College (PTC) Lahore.
Punjab Additional IG Investigation Shahzada Sultan has been appointed as the chairman of the committee, while Welfare and Finance Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Rana Masoom is the member of the committee.
An official privy to the development declared it a ‘serious departmental proceedings’ initiated by the Punjab government to question a DIG-ranked senior police officer in addition to the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) and account officers.
The DDOs are designated as public officials authorised to withdraw funds from the government exchequer and disburse them legally following the standard operating procedures. He said that the then PTC commandant was also authorised to use the DDO powers to manage expenditure and financial transactions strictly in accordance with the laws.
Talking about the significance of the fact finding committee of the Punjab Police, the official said that if the allegations were proved, the government may forward the case to the establishment division, Islamabad to initiate further proceedings.
He said that the move came after an internal audit team, constituted by Punjab Inspector General of Police Abdul Kareem, furnished a detailed report of the alleged irregularities into the accounts of the PTC Lahore. The report allegedly established large-scale embezzlement/irregularities of Rs450 million in the accounts of the college during 10 months between June 2025 to February 2026. The audit team which furnished the report was headed by Raja Faisal, the Punjab Highways Patrol (PHP) DIG.
The official said that the newly-established fact finding committee had been given a crucial task to redefine the role of the then commandant of the training college in the light of the report submitted by the internal audit team.
Quoting the report in-question, the official said that a majority of the stocks and record keeping bills were allegedly found missing from the institute’s record. Similarly, ledgers, sales, purchases and other bills had allegedly not been maintained properly.
The fact finding committee will also focus on the alleged blatant violations of the PPRA rules in awarding tenders to contractor(s) of choice as was pointed out by the internal audit team in its report and will fix the financial loss responsibilities on the officials concerned.
The committee has also been briefed about the alleged embezzlement in multiple accounts during the mentioned period. They included a dubious cash withdrawal of over R67 million from the accounts of the College a few days before the posting of the new commandant and another alleged transaction of over Rs86 million made some seven months back.
Similarly, alleged financial anomalies pertaining to the funds provided by the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera) and the customs department for the training of officials of both entities were also pointed out as a matter of serious concern in the internal audit report.
The alleged misuse of public resources came to the limelight when the serving commandant of PCT Lahore DIG Sohail Chaudhry on March 17, 2026 took up the matter with the IGP through an official letter, requesting him to carry out an internal audit of the college.
Separately, the official claimed that the IGP had also appointed Punjab Additional IG Police training Khurram Shakoor to prepare a complete proposal to help prevent such incidents in training institutes of the province in future. He was also assigned the task to come up with a flawless system of ensuring transactions of public funds and keeping the tender process transparent.
There were also some reports that the DG audit would dispatch a team to carry out external audit of the PTC Lahore in the light of the request submitted by college’s commandant through a seperate letter he wrote later.
Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2026
