MANSEHRA, Aug 19: The army handed over a teacher to police custody and got a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) booked on charges of soliciting money, in the name of the army’s survey team, from earthquake survivors, officials said here on Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference in the Shawal Najif army camp in Balakot, Major Waqar and Captain Owais said the army teams had initiated the survey of damaged houses for the payment of compensation amount in Balakot, Karnol and Garlat union councils and so far 90 to 95 per cent of the affected people had been paid the second installment of the compensation amount.

They said that since the last several weeks they were receiving complaints that Taimour Raza, district vice-president of the PML (Q) for Mansehra, had been receiving money from the survivors after telling them that the amount would be paid to the army survey teams.

They said that in the past Taimour Raza tried to put pressure on the survey teams to get controversial jobs done but failed.

They said that on Saturday Taimour Raza first complained that Ijaz Hussein Shah, a teacher who was part of the survey team, received bribes from the survivors in the name of the army.

They said that when Ijaz Hussein Shah was taken into custody and asked about the charges he revealed that Taimour Raza had asked him to blame the army.

They said that a case was registered against Taimour and Ijaz Hussein in the Garhi Habibullah police station. Ijaz was arrested while Taimour Raza was still at large, they added.

They said that Ijaz Hussein Shah had confessed before the police and the army that he received bribes from the earthquake survivors.