Dead three years: School allegedly paying salaries to deceased employee

Woman claims someone else receiving monthly salaries in her dead husband's name

SUKKUR: The officers of the Sukkur education department are very generous towards their employees - to the extent that even one of their deceased staffer has been getting salaries for the last three years, it emerged on Tuesday.

Rukhsana Chandio, a resident of Sukkur, informed the local media that her husband, Rafiq Chandio, a chowkidar in the education department, died in 2013 and since then she has been running from pillar to post to get the pending monetary dues, but all in vain.

She alleged that recently she came to know that another person, identified as Ismail Shaikh, a resident of Pano Aqil, somehow manipulated the system and has been getting a salary from the Government Comprehensive High School, Sukkur in her husband's name for the last three years.



Rukhsana said she has complained to the education department high-ups but they are yet to take action against Shaikh.

"I have also sent an application to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Sukkur in this regard," she informed journalists on Tuesday.

ACE deputy director Tariq Ali Nizamani said as such they have not received any application from the woman in question, "but I have come to know about the matter through media reports." He said he has ordered his circle officer to probe into the matter and dig out the facts. "For now an inquiry is under way. Let's see what comes out of it," he said.

When contacted, Sukkur Education Director Abdul Aziz Hakro told The Express Tribune that Rafiq was a chowkidar at Government Comprehensive High School, Sukkur. He explained that since he died after three years of service, his widow will not get a pension, according to the rules. Government employees, he said, have to complete ten years of service to qualify for such benefits.

"The woman will get the pending salaries [if any] of her deceased husband," he added.

The headmaster of the school, Taj Muhammad Channa, failed to call back with a version despite assurances.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2016.