Legal hickups: Baffled police unable to arrest accused

‘New’ examination board chief demanded to inquire answer sheets theft.

RAWALPINDI:

The police have yet to arrest the main accused in the theft case that jolted the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Rawalpindi over two months ago. Meanwhile, the higher education department of Punjab officials said a departmental inquiry against the accused cannot be conducted till a regular chairman of the examination body is appointed.

The higher education department of Punjab removed the then chairman, Chaudhry Abdul Hafeez, and controller examination, Abdul Sattar Ramay, after over 500 solved answer sheets of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination were stolen from the United Bank Limited (UBL) branch in Pindori on March 27.

BISE Rawalpindi has been without a regular chairman, secretary and controller examination for the last two months.

Assistant Police Officer Muhammad Arshad, who has been investigating the case, said the police have been unable to arrest the main accused, identified as Zahir Shah, a headmaster of a primary school in Kamalabad, Rawalpindi, after he obtained interim bail from the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench.

The officer said that the trial court refused to entertain Shah’s pre-arrest bail on grounds that allegations against him are to be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). When he approached the special court of ACE, the judge observed that it was not under the jurisdiction of special court to entertain the bail application as the case had been registered by the local police.

Sources in Rawat police said, “The case has become legally complicated and the ultimate beneficiaries could be the accused.”

The police officer said that of the accused, the bank’s manager, assistant manger, peon, watchman, driver of the car carrying the stolen answer sheets and a clerk of BISE could not be arrested as they obtained post-arrest bails from Banking Tribunal Court in Lahore.

Developments in the case were made when a private school teacher, Waqqar Satti, was arrested while carrying answer sheets of SSE exams for English and Science subjects. Upon interrogation, Satti revealed that he was to solve the stolen answer sheets and nominated Zahir Shah, the headmaster, for providing him the answer sheets to be solved on payment.

Punjab’s higher education department has initiated a departmental inquiry against the eight officials of BISE Rawalpindi but the inquiry cannot be completed till a regular chairman of the examination body can be appointed.

Affairs of the examination body are being run by the acting chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf, who is holding the post of Director Colleges Rawalpindi Division as ad-hoc arrangements for the last two months.

An official of BISE, requesting anonymity, said there are many professors and associate professors in the run for the administrative slots and few former officials of the board are also striving for the posts.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2011.