Accused were found involved in drawing funds for non-existent schemes. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE:
As many as 20 officers of Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) including acting director general have been suspended on corruption charges.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to initiate inquiry against these officials regarding multi-billion-rupee corruption in Peoples Works Programme (PWP-II), sources familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune.
More stunning than suspending 20 officers in one go is the appointment of a grade 19 officer as acting director general (DG) of Pak-PWD, a grade 21 post.
According to a notification, Mian Masood Ahmad presently serving as staff officer of the chief engineer central zone (CZ) Lahore Ataul Haq Akhtar will perform his duties as DG Pak-PWD in pay scale of BPS-19.
Ahmad will be the boss and subordinate of Haq at the same time.
The suspended officers of Pak PWD include Sarwar Awan, acting DG, Shahdin, former chief engineer CZ Lahore, executive engineers Mrs Humera Khurram Khan, Hasan Akhtar, Mrs Nighat Anwar, Javed Akbar, Pervez Iqbal, Assistant Executive Engineers Arif Rasool, Khursheed Ahmed Mirza, Nadeem Abbas, Zubair Ahmed, Abdul Qayyum and sub-engineers Sikandar Hayat, Tajjamal Hussain, Amjad Bhatti, Niamat Ali, Faizul Hassan, Abdul Waheed, Iram Alam, Ghulam Sarwar, Ijaz Hussain.
According to Pak-PWD report available with The Express Tribune these officers have been found involved in drawing funds for PWP-II that existed only on papers
During the course of physical inspection most of the schemes were found to be bogus and nonexistent, Pak PWD report further revealed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2013.
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