GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Gujranwala summoned on Saturday (tomorrow) three chief officers and suspects nominated in Rs40 million financial scam of the Gujrat Municipal Corporation.

Official sources said the ACE would record the statements of incumbent Gujrat MC Chief Officer Khaliq Daad Gara and two former chief officers, including Malik Abrar, in connection with the investigation.

The ACE had lodged a case on Nov 8 against seven officials of Gujrat MC, including Abrar, who served as chief officer of the district council, and three of them, namely municipal officer finance Rauf Ashraf, audit officer Aamir Majeed and clerk Majid Rasheed, were arrested. Two of the arrested suspects are on physical remand until Nov 23 and third is on remand until Nov 25.

Malik Abrar, a woman officer of the Bank of Punjab main branch, Memoona, and two remaining suspects had got bail before arrest in the case until Nov 21 from the ACE special court. On Thursday, the bail of four suspects was extended until Dec 10. The ACE was directed to conclude the investigation until the next hearing.

The ACE Gujranwala director told Dawn that some former COs could also be grilled to ascertain the facts and the case investigation would conclude soon. He said the ACE investigation team had to determine the role of suspects involved in the case.

Official sources said one of the suspects, Majid Rasheed, a data entry operator, had already recorded his confessional statement during the probe by the divisional and district administrations.

In the scam, the sources said, different amounts were illegally withdrawn thrice against the bogus bills from the BoP main branch through cheques in the name of fictitious accounts, showing different sanitary workers of the MC during the current year. In his confessional statement, recorded during initial departmental inquiry, one of the suspects revealed that some officials had first stolen the cheques and then, through fake signatures of three officials, got them cashed from the BoP Islampura branch in Lahore.

One of the suspects, Gujrat District Council Chief Officer Malik Ibrar, held additional charge of Gujrat MC chief officer for around a year before Mr Gara was appointed to the post a couple of months back.

Interestingly, Abrar is still holding the district council chief officer’s office despite the registration of the corruption case against him.

Published in Dawn, November 22th, 2024