Not accountable: ‘Corrupt’ agriculture official yet to face enquiry

Former Seed Industry Project director accused of making illegal appointments, amassing wealth.

PESHAWAR:

Owing to legal ambiguity and the government’s sluggish pace, the enquiry against the former seed industry project director over financial irregularities and misuse of powers is yet to bear fruit despite a lapse of over two and half years.

According to a notification of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Agriculture, Livestock and Cooperative Department issued on October 10, 2011, a committee comprising two department officials was formed to investigate allegations against then director of the department’s Seed Industry Project Muhammad Ismail Jan and submit its report in a week. The project was a subsidiary of the department’s Agriculture Development Fund (ADF).

According to the terms of reference of the enquiry, the committee would probe irregular withdrawals from banks, disposal of official business without adopting proper procedure, irregular appointments, shady purchases and failure to reach fixed project targets and goals, among others.

A department official said Jan, who was serving at ADF on a contractual basis at the time, was asked to cooperate with the committee and clear dues worth millions of rupees by providing all the documents to the department. “Jan was told by the department that he cannot be issued a no-objection certificate on his retirement before the case is cleared,” said the official, adding the situation forced the department to file an FIR against him.

According to the FIR lodged at Chamkani police station and written by then director general agriculture Rasheed Khan, Jan was retired from the project on superannuation on August 17, 2010. “The officer (Jan) was asked time and again to hand over the record of the project, its asset details and outstanding dues of the Agriculture Development Fund but he failed to do so and thus an amount of Rs3,828,692 is outstanding against him,” the FIR states.

Legal loophole

The department official, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune that Jan had informed a civil court that former additional secretary Muhammad Israr and former director general livestock and dairy department Ihsanullah Khan, who were part of the enquiry committee, were not eligible for conducting the enquiry as they were BS-19 grade officials and were tasked to probe a BS-20 official.

“The committee was dissolved as its structure was not at par with laws barring junior officials to investigate a senior,” the official said. He alleged that the case was stalled as Jan colluded with former agriculture minister Arbab Ayub Jan to induct around two dozen of his people into the department in violation of rules and, thus, had Arbab’s “backing”.

The present Seed Project Director, Muhammad Khan, told The Express Tribune the enquiry has been lingering since long due to unknown reasons, adding they have asked the anti-corruption department to provide them with the facts and findings of the case several times, but to no avail. “Our senior officials keep asking us about the enquiry’s fate,” he said.

When contacted, Jan told The Express Tribune the court gave him relief after he challenged the committee’s composition. “Nothing can be said at present about the status of the enquiry against me until everything is finalised,” he said. Jan denied all the allegations against him and refused to further comment on the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2014.