LARKANA, Oct 3: In a row between the department of education and the local Zakat office, a handsome amount sanctioned under the Ministry of Religious Affairs scholarship scheme was surrendered.
The sources told this correspondent on Friday that the Ministry of Religious Affairs had released a sum of Rs16,810,470 to be distributed amongst the deserving students studying in the technical colleges and other institutions in Larkana district.
The education department, in the light of a meeting held on April 24, 2003 in Sukkur was asked to submit the applications on the prescribed form.
The Zakat office said that it had released the amount through cheques maintaining transparency.
However, the sources in the education department raised doubts as some headmasters had informed the education officials regarding the delaying tactics being used by Zakat officials, which the latter disputed.
A case of alleged embezzlement surfaced when the students of the Government Degree College, Larkana, pointed towards misappropriation in the funds.
The district Nazim office wrote to the Anti-Corruption Establishment office, Larkana, for registering an FIR against the principal but in vain.
When the district Nazim inquired about MORA scholarship details on the designated form, the Zakat officials kept silent over the issue, sources in the Nazim’s office said.
It was learnt that reports of misappropriation of funds from the Middle School Tharo Wadho, Primary School Rehmatpur, and Government Primary School Naudero had been conveyed to the senior education officials.
The district officer (technical) in a letter to the in charge of the Government Mono-technical Institute, Ratodero; Government Vocational School (Girls), Garihi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto, and a junior clerk of the same institute pointed out that payments were made in cash instead of through cheques and to strangers who were not students as a result of which less amount was paid to deserving students.
In the row, an amount of Rs1,802,485, which was supposed to be distributed among the eligible students, had been surrendered to the Ministry of Zakat, Sindh government.
A new tranche of Rs4,810,589 had been released to the Zakat office for further distribution under the MORA scholarship scheme, sources said.
SHC: The Sindh High Court, Larkana circuit bench, on Friday ordered the deputy director general of the Sindh Agriculture Supply Organization to release the pension benefits and salary of a chowkidar.
The bench consisted of Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Zawar Hussain Jafferi.
The petitioner, Hussain Bakhsh Mangi, through his advocate said that his three-month salary and all pension and gratuity benefits had been stopped on the excuse that he (i.e. the petitioner) had drawn an extra amount of Rs55,218.
He said it was the salary amount that he had drawn against the services he rendered from 1.7.2001 to 31.12.2002.
The advocate for the petitioner said that in violation of article 9 and 14 of the Constitution, the respondents had stopped the benefits of pension and gratuity and were withholding his salary for the last three months.
The SASO officials said that the amount would be recovered from his pension.
The deputy director general, SASO, failed to satisfy the court as to how the services of the petitioner were terminated in retrospective.
He said he did it on the instructions of his superiors.
The court said a person could only be relieved from service prospectively observing the rules of such service.
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