Lesson learnt: Arrest orders issued for former education board chief

The official is accused of making money by announcing a housing scheme which did not exist.

RAWALPINDI:

Recent events in Rawalpindi do not bode well for education in the city. After missing answering sheets, corrupt teachers and unhindered cheating in examinations, the former chief of the education board is in murky waters for alleged involvement in a housing scam.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has obtained permission to arrest former chairman Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Rawalpindi, Dr Iftikhar Baig, The Express Tribune has learnt. Dr Baig, a grade-20 official of the Punjab education department, has been accused of minting money from floating a housing scheme in 2004, which existed nowhere. An ACE official revealed that they had permission to arrest the educationist from director general ACE, Lahore. Regional directors usually need permission to arrest government employees in grade 17 and above.

Four different complainants have approached the ACE since 2008, alleging that they applied for plots in the Education City Project launched in Fateh Jang in 2004 and paid Rs150,000 in advance. They were to pay the remaining Rs900,000 in monthly installments.

The distinct feature of this housing scam is educationists at the helm of nonexistent project, both as developers and investors. The Education City Project was initiated by the Education Foundation, a Lahore-based organisation working for the welfare of retired and serving teachers.

“I applied for nine plots each measuring 10 marlas and paid Rs150,000 for each plot as the first installment. I did not fear being swindled as the developers and advertisers were known educationists,” Waqar Ahmed, a schoolteacher from Jhelum maintained in his complaint to the ACE Rawalpindi. “The housing society was said to be reserved for teachers,” he added.

Thousands of retired teachers invested their hard-earned money to have a house or get returns on their investment. They have been waiting for the last six years to hear the good news. But the management of the society has so far been unable to purchase the land, the complainant has said.

“We trusted the developers because they were educationists including former BISE chairman Dr Baig,” said a female lecturer at the International Islamic University in her complaint to ACE. “I invested Rs2 million for 14 plots as some of my relatives also invested their money,” she said.

A lecturer who is a widow, requesting anonymity, said she had invested her late husband’s pension for their children’s future. The offices of the Education City project have vanished and she could not contact Dr Baig who persuaded her to invest in the housing society, she said.

Dr Baig stated during an initial inquiry that he headed the society’s management in the past but its affairs are currently being run by the Education Foundation.

An ACE official said, “The developers had said they purchased some 2,500 kanals of land at Fateh Jang, but later the site was demarcated for the new airport.” The Ministry of Defence had stopped the society from initiating development.

When contacted Director Rawalpindi ACE Saleem Hussain confirmed that raids were being carried out to arrest the accused.

The director said his office had come across some property of Dr Baig in Joharabad in Lahore and the concerned authorities had been informed to block the transfer of the property till the final outcome of the case.

He said Baig’s name had been placed on the exit control list (ECL) to stop him from leaving the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2011.