LAHORE: The Punjab government has reappointed a BPS-17 official as the superintendent of District Jail, Kasur, from where he was transferred as a ‘punishment’ on allegations of selling soil of several acres of land, a property of the jail.

A probe had held him guilty of selling over 1,000 truckloads of soil after massive digging in the land of the jail this year.

Following the findings of the inquiry, Inspector General of Prisons Punjab Mirza Shahid Baig had referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) for an investigation and punishment to the official. The scandal shocked the senior jail officers when the video and photographic evidence came to the surface, showing a loss to the national exchequer.

However, the official in question, Ghulam Sarwar Samra, seemed to be so influential that he got his posting back by ‘by-passing’ the entire accountability mechanism of the home department, the ACE and the office of the inspector general of prisons.

Tainted jail chief gets reappointment at same post, another transferred five times in a month

An official, privy to the development, said the home department’s notification of appointment of Samra shows that the department’s writ has badly been compromised. He said as the notification was circulated to the prisons department, it stunned many senior officials, including the IG Prisons, as he was reportedly ‘bypassed’ in the matter. The IG Prisons is stated to be quite unhappy about the development.

The official source claimed that though the Punjab Home Department was competent authority, it had blatantly ignored the findings/recommendations of the IG Prisons, rendering him irrelevant in the entire process.

According to the inquiry report, Gulam Sarwar Samra as superintendent jail had sold 1,064 trolleys/trucks of soil during digging on the Kasur jail land. The official source said the incumbent government was not giving any heed to the IG prisons in the transfer/postings of the jail officials as all the appointment orders were coming from either the CM Secretariat or the home department. He said the digging was carried out on the jail premises for many weeks while dodging the entire surveillance system of the prisons department.

There are reports the ACE had imposed a fine on the contractor and other suspects to the tune of Rs2.4m as an ‘eyewash,’ raising a question mark over the accountability mechanism.

The source said that depositing the fine amount with the national exchequer would not bring back the hundreds of tonnes of soil of the jail’s land that was sold in the market. He said the dug-up land could not be filled so far and the intensity of crime required a major punishment to the guilty officials rather than a ‘cash fine’.

Another interesting aspect of the case is that the inquiry was carried out by Muhammad Arshad when he was posted as the Kasur jail superintendent. Since then, he was serving there as superintendent of the jail. The home department replaced Arshad with Ghulam Sarwar Samra whom he had declared guilty in his report. The seniors in the prisons department are reportedly thinking to taking up the matter at the higher forums.

As if this case is not enough to show the mess that has been created in the prisons department, another example is that of another superintendent of jail, namely Sajid Baig, was transferred and posted five times within a month across the province and each time the IG Prisons was kept away from the entire process.

According to the source, Sajid Baig was serving as superintendent of the Central Jail, Gujranwala when he was selected for two-week training in the US. As he proceeded abroad, the Punjab government issued his transfer orders from Gujranwala to Rawalpindi instead of waiting for completion of his short training.

As matter came to his notice, Mr Baig cut his visit short by one week and came back to protest his premature transfer.

The official said his protest and posting back to his previous position was turned down and he was transferred within three days from Rawalpindi and directed to report to the Inspectorate General of Prisons Punjab till further orders. Later, he was transferred and posted as superintendent of Bahawalpur jail from where he was again transferred and posted at high security prisons of Mianwali.

The official said in the entire process the IG Jail was informed about his transfer/postings through the notifications issued by the home department.

When contacted, Punjab Minister for Home and Prisons Hashim Dogar said he would take action if any evidence of the jail official’s involvement in this regard was provided to the department.

When informed about IG prison’s inquiry report which had held him guilty of charges, he didn’t reply.

IG Prisons Mirza Shahid Baig refused to comment on the matter.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2022