Swindler ‘selling’ Agri Dept jobs nabbed

Islampura SHO Hussain Ali Malik said that after investigation he would decide about the registration of a case.

LAHORE:

A man has been turned over to Islampura police by some lawyers for allegedly posing as a major and attempting to swindle people by ‘selling’ jobs in the Agriculture Department.

Islampura SHO Hussain Ali Malik said that he was investigating the matter, after which he would decide about the registration of a case.

Lawyer Rana Majid told The Express Tribune that the matter had been brought to his attention by an acquaintance named Muhammad Akram, who was approached by a man introducing himself as Major Muhammad Arif and claiming to have the ability to grant jobs in the Agriculture Department.

Majid said that Akram had asked Arif to get his son Shoaib a job as assistant, a service for which Arif demanded Rs25,000. Akram had given Arif Rs10,000 on August 14. Shoaib had later paid Arif the remaining Rs15,000 at the District and Sessions Court, where Arif had handed him a copy of an appointment letter with the promise that the original would arrive soon.

Shoaib later received a letter stating that the Punjab government had banned hiring for a month and that Shoaib would receive his appointment letter on September 25. The letter bore a court stamp.

Majid said that Akram and Shoaib, confused at the court stamp on a purported provincial government document, then consulted him. He said that he had suggested that they invite Arif to the sessions court on Monday, when he and other lawyers nabbed the alleged swindler. He said Arif had admitted to not being a major.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2012.