LAHORE - FIA on Monday arrested one of the 12 executive engineers allegedly involved in embezzlement of Rs221 million in pensions case.
Those executive engineers are Raja Mehmood Ahmad, Ayub Afzal, Rai Muhammad Asghar, Izhar Altaf, Shahid Rashid Toor, Muhammad Nasir, Malik Zahid Qayyum, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Saeed Rana, Chaudhry Manzoor Hassan, Nadeem Malik, Zulfiqar Ali Baluch and M Ramzan Butt.
The accused had got pre-arrest bails from lower court first and then withdrawn the same and FIA investigators did not arrest the accused due to unknown reasons.
Officers involved in the scam are of grade 17, 18, and 19 apart from lower grade staff, but FIA investigators arrested only subordinate staff and produced them in court. A few days ago the Lahore High Court asked the investigator why he was reluctant to arrest senior officers. As a result, first executive engineer Nadeem Malik was arrested.
Arrest warrants for 13 other Lesco officials and ghost pensioners, including Rana Saeed Akhtar (DAO, Lesco), Muhammad Farooq (revenue officer), Muhammad Imran Gill (revenue officer), Iqbal Aner RO, Shahid Hussain RO and DAO Mubashir Ali were issued in the past. The ghost pensioners include Muhammad Abbas, Saghir Masih, Naila Nadeem, Waseem Allah Ditta, Sani William, Rohail Raza and Kausar Bano.
As per FIA investigation, Lesco XEN Raja Mehmood Ahmed embezzled Rs365,515 from pensioners fund, XEN Rai Asghar committed fraud of Rs1,044,142, XEN Azhar Altaf embezzled Rs4,644,833, XEN Muhammad Nasir Rs1,044,800, XEN Malik Zahid Qayyum Rs1,381,452, XEN Muhammad Iqbal Rs10,967,388, XEN Mujahid Saeed Rana embezzled Rs28,353,255, XEN Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain Rs6.1 million, XEN Nadeem Malik committed fraud of Rs70.5 million, XEN Zulfiqar Ali Baluch Rs4.6 million, XEN Ramzan Butt Rs2.7 million.
The Lesco revenue officers include Muhammad Farooq Rs5 million, RO Imran Gill Rs35 million, RO Iqbal Noor Rs20.3 million, RO Shahid Hussain Rs629,000, Lesco DAO Ayub Afzal Rs1.3 million, DAO Shahid Bashir Rs668,000, DAO Rana Saeed Akhtar Rs40.2 million, DAO Mubashar Ali Rs3.3 million. As per FIA investigation, ghost pensioner Muhammad Abbas in collaboration with the Lesco officials received Rs6,223,261 from pensioner fund, Saghir Masih received Rs436,000, Naveed Asif Rs8.4 million, Naila Nadeem Rs2.5 million, Waseem Allah Ditta Rs5.1 million, Sunny William Rs510,000, Rohail Raza Rs77,065, Kausar Bano Rs7.6 million.
When contacted FIA Assistant Director, Rizwan Ahmad said accused withdrew their bails in the court to prove their innocence and after withdrawal of the bail FIA did not arrest the accused since there were not enough evidences against the accused. He said, “I am confident that within coming couple of days more arrests will be made”.