QUETTA - The National Accountability Bureau Friday filed reference in accountability court against nine officers of Balochistan education department and accountant general office following a scam of illegal appointments of teachers.
“The fraudulent complicity of Education Department and Accountant General (AG) Office in appointment of hundreds of bogus teachers has been exposed,” the Bureau said in a press release.
For sizeable malpractices, NAB-Balochistan filed reference in court against nine persons including ex-Schools director Muhammad Yousaf, Additional Schools Director Nizamud Din Mengal, District Education Officer Muhammad Farooq, Deputy District Education Officer Zafran Ahmed, Balochistan Senior Auditor Accountant General Office Mushtaq Ahmed, Sayed Wajahat Shah, Assistant Accounts Officer Sikandar Alam and Ihsanullah for incurring heavy financial losses to the national exchequer with bogus appointments.
The issue of ghost teachers and schools, and students has already led the education sector into a blind alley in Pakistan’s largest province, consuming 24 per cent budget in the fiscal year-spending yet hindering the progress in achieving settled objectives.
The Bureau, taking notice of the complaints on bogus appointments, had initiated investigation and unveiled in its initial probe that the officers of Education Department and AG Office had appointed hundreds of fake teachers with a falsified collusion of both offices.
All these nine officers of the AG Office and Education Department have been declared liable to making fake appointments.
The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), in a data cleansing move, had already painted gloomy picture of the provincial education department by tracing out 2261 employees who could not be verified in the authority’s record.
The probe disclosed that the central accused of the case, Deputy District Education Officer Zafran Ahmed, verified the doctored forms of hundreds of persons in the department and dispatched to AG Office for further proceedings, after which the relevant officers finalised legal formalities and issued stipends to the concerned persons.
The Education secretary spoke of obliviousness regarding to the appointments of these teachers, when informed about the issue by the NAB investigation team, the Bureau said in a statement.
Tracking out the remarks, the bureau launched three separate cases against several officials to find out the responsible officers.
The NAB then lodged reference in Accountability Court against former directors’ schools Abdul Qayum Babai and Abdul Karim Qayazai, while reference against ex Director Schools, Additional Director Schools, District Education Officer, Deputy District Education and five officers of AG Office was also filed in the court in fake teachers’ appointment scam.
For mending loopholes in the sector, the four parties’ coalition regime in Balochistan had earmarked Rs45 billion for education sector in the provincial fiscal year spending of 2017-18, and also delineated a five year education sector plan, entailing construction of new schools and up gradation of existing ones.
But, the hurdles clutching education sector seem inadequate as implied by the succeeding regimes in the province, and placing the future of nation at risk.
SHARIF KHAN