MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 23: It appears that the long arm of the law reaches only the lowly. It runs short of line where a big fish is involved. In Azad Kashmir where patwaris have been booked by the state's Ehtesab Bureau for alleged embezzlement of minor sums the former president, Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan, has been illegally keeping in his possession an official vehicle worth Rs1.2 million for two years.

Mr Khan, also a retired major-general, completed his five-year term as AJK president on August 25, 2006 but retained two official vehicles of his cavalcade at his Rawalpindi residence, for which he was allegedly receiving Rs50,000 monthly rent from the AJK exchequer. One of the vehicles was returned by him after a month but the other – a 2005 model Toyota Corolla Saloon car (MDGA-157) – is still in his possession.

There is no such provision in the laws governing the privileges of former presidents which only allow a monthly pension of Rs30,000, a Rs5,000 telephone expenses and three discretionary employees – a stenographer, a driver-cum-gunman and an orderly. Ironically, neither the president's secretariat, nor the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) have initiated any action over the past two years to reclaim the costly vehicle from Mr Khan, despite press reports about the issue. In fact, the president's secretariat seems to have washed its hands of a vehicle of its fleet.

In response to repeated queries by Dawn, senior officials of the president's secretariat irksomely maintained that since their office had been provided an alternative vehicle they were not bothered if a former head of the state was illegally holding government property he was not entitled to.

However, an official requesting not to be named, maintained that it was primarily the responsibility of the president's secretariat to reclaim the vehicle purchased from its budget.

He pointed out that the transport of president and prime minister's secretariats was manned by their respective transport officers and not by the S&GAD's central transport pool which provided vehicles to cabinet members and secretaries to the government.

“The president’s secretariat people have simply shirked from their duties and are trying in vain to pass the buck on us,” said the official.

Citing a number of cases wherein the S&GAD had reclaimed its vehicles from former ministers with the help of police, he said the president's secretariat should have followed suit.

Official sources regretted that the AJK Ehtesab Bureau had also turned a blind eye to the occupation of an official property by the former president despite media reports to this effect. The bureau is empowered to take suo motu action in cases involving abuse of authority, corruption and loss to national exchequer.

“This matter was in the know of Ehtesab Bureau but the (former) chairmen always tended to overlook it,” a former bureau official confided to Dawn.It may be mentioned here that the bureau's two last chairmen -- Tariq Bashir and Sarfraz Iqbal -- were also retired major-generals. Mr Bashir was relieved in mid-June following an amendment in the law about the institution, which is currently headed by Justice Mohammad Younis Tahir, a serving judge of the AJK high court.

The former president refuses to answer questions about the car and the bungalow in his possession.