MULTAN, Jan 19: The three-member committee, constituted to probe theft of useful electric gadgets from the store of the highly protected 500kv grid station, has submitted its report.
Sources said the committee has, however, confined scope of its investigation only to the shortage of material in the store rather than the alarming aspect of how the thieves managed to steal away goods from a facility that was supposed to be highly guarded round-the-clock.
Qadirpur Raan police had rounded up Ghulam Shabbir on June 10 last when he was carrying about 280 kilograms of aluminium conductors. The police had later set him free to establish his ownership rights over the impounded electricity material. Shabbir has since been absconding.
In the meantime, resident engineer Sajid Ali of the gird station moved an application with Qadirpur Raan police station to take possession of the impounded material, stating that 600kgs of aluminium conductor had been missing from his store and now he had come to know that the police had recovered the material.
The material, however, was handed over to the grid station official only when he secured an order in this regard from a local civil court in November last. The resident engineer neither conducted an inquiry as to how the aluminium conductors were stolen nor did he fix responsibility for a serious security lapse on any of his subordinates.
It is pertinent to mention here that the local 500kv grid station is said to be highly loaded and one of its kind in the country. When the store was checked on Dec 31 last, around 1,400kgs of aluminium conductors were again found missing.
Later, the General Manager Grid System Operations ordered an inquiry on a news item into the matter. He constituted a committee comprising superintending engineer Chaudhry Muhammad Anwar (220kv circle), executive engineer Muhammad Ilyas (500kv transmission line) and senior budget and account officer Anwarul Haq.
The committee questioned 10 officials from the RE to watchmen and also got weighed the aluminium conductors on Jan 13 from a weighbridge near the Pak-Arab Fertilizers Factory.
It reportedly found aluminium conductors about 3,500kg short against their quantity given in the store books of the grid station. Some insiders are skeptical of the way the inquiry committee conducted its operation.
They said the committee had found some scapegoat in the form of a couple of low-grade officials while overall in-charge of the affairs of the grid station was likely to be absolved of any negligence. This conduct of the committee was evident from the fact that it carried out its proceedings in the RE office, they added.
When contacted, the inquiry committee head, SE Chaudhry Anwar, said the committee held its sessions and recorded statements of the officials in the RE office only because of its suitability as most of the officials questioned had belonged to the 500kv grid station. He declined to reveal findings of the committee regarding theft and subsequent efforts of the officials concerned to play it cool.