Money for rescued camel jockeys embezzled
Punjab government intends to proceed against PML-Q’s Faiza Asghar.
LAHORE:
The Punjab government intends to take legal action against Dr Faiza Asghar, an opposition member in the Punjab Assembly, for allegedly embezzling money meant for poor children who had been smuggled out of Pakistan to serve as camel jockeys, The Express Tribune has learnt.
In 2005, the United Arab Emirates banned the use of children as jockeys in camel races. Many children had suffered serious injuries like broken bones or were killed in falls from camels. The jockeys, most of them children from south Punjab, were kept in harsh conditions and given little to eat so they stayed light for the races.
The UAE signed a deal with Unicef to repatriate the children. In Pakistan, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB), which was chaired by Dr Asghar, helped identify the parents of the jockeys and bring them back.
In April 2007, the UAE signed another agreement to fund the rehabilitation of these children and compensate them. The CPWB was tasked with administering the compensation funds.
An official said that up to 1,100 camel jockeys had returned from Arab countries and over Rs40 million had been distributed to them and their families. The minimum compensation paid was $1,000 (Rs85,100) per family and the maximum $21,000 (Rs1.8 million).
According to a report compiled by a cabinet sub-committee, Dr Asghar and then CPWB assistant director Zubair Ahmed Shad embezzled large sums of money from the compensation funds.
A board was set up to look after the project and Dr Asghar was named a member of the board. She then set up a medical evaluation panel to assess the injuries. According to the report, Dr Asghar acted illegally as the head of this medical panel, chairing meetings without taking the Interior Ministry on board. The panel was set up at a private hospital owned by her husband, ignoring the public hospitals in Punjab. She visited the UAE five times at public expense without administrative approval, says the report.
The cabinet committee said in its report that Dr Asghar gave advertisements inviting families to seek compensation in newspapers published from Lahore, whereas most child jockeys were from the districts of Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. No advertisements were given in newspapers published from Sindh. The committee said the advertisements were ambiguous and did not even mention the deadline for receiving claims.
The committee found it irregular that Dr Asghar was serving simultaneously as member of the administrative board, head of the medical evaluation team and chairwoman of the CPWB. It declared that the process of evaluating claims and compensation was unfair.
Dr Asghar, who served as CPWB chairwoman from 2004 to 2010, denied the charges and said she was being victimised because she is a member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. She said she had played her part in bringing back these children and they were paid in a transparent manner. “All the powers delegated to me were exercised with honesty,” she said.
About the selection of her husband’s hospital, she said the decision was made on merit as the hospital in question had superior facilities for the treatment of children than any public sector hospital.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2011.
The Punjab government intends to take legal action against Dr Faiza Asghar, an opposition member in the Punjab Assembly, for allegedly embezzling money meant for poor children who had been smuggled out of Pakistan to serve as camel jockeys, The Express Tribune has learnt.
In 2005, the United Arab Emirates banned the use of children as jockeys in camel races. Many children had suffered serious injuries like broken bones or were killed in falls from camels. The jockeys, most of them children from south Punjab, were kept in harsh conditions and given little to eat so they stayed light for the races.
The UAE signed a deal with Unicef to repatriate the children. In Pakistan, the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB), which was chaired by Dr Asghar, helped identify the parents of the jockeys and bring them back.
In April 2007, the UAE signed another agreement to fund the rehabilitation of these children and compensate them. The CPWB was tasked with administering the compensation funds.
An official said that up to 1,100 camel jockeys had returned from Arab countries and over Rs40 million had been distributed to them and their families. The minimum compensation paid was $1,000 (Rs85,100) per family and the maximum $21,000 (Rs1.8 million).
According to a report compiled by a cabinet sub-committee, Dr Asghar and then CPWB assistant director Zubair Ahmed Shad embezzled large sums of money from the compensation funds.
A board was set up to look after the project and Dr Asghar was named a member of the board. She then set up a medical evaluation panel to assess the injuries. According to the report, Dr Asghar acted illegally as the head of this medical panel, chairing meetings without taking the Interior Ministry on board. The panel was set up at a private hospital owned by her husband, ignoring the public hospitals in Punjab. She visited the UAE five times at public expense without administrative approval, says the report.
The cabinet committee said in its report that Dr Asghar gave advertisements inviting families to seek compensation in newspapers published from Lahore, whereas most child jockeys were from the districts of Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. No advertisements were given in newspapers published from Sindh. The committee said the advertisements were ambiguous and did not even mention the deadline for receiving claims.
The committee found it irregular that Dr Asghar was serving simultaneously as member of the administrative board, head of the medical evaluation team and chairwoman of the CPWB. It declared that the process of evaluating claims and compensation was unfair.
Dr Asghar, who served as CPWB chairwoman from 2004 to 2010, denied the charges and said she was being victimised because she is a member of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. She said she had played her part in bringing back these children and they were paid in a transparent manner. “All the powers delegated to me were exercised with honesty,” she said.
About the selection of her husband’s hospital, she said the decision was made on merit as the hospital in question had superior facilities for the treatment of children than any public sector hospital.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2011.