Charge-sheet declaring schools director innocent rejected

He had been booked for enabling ghost teachers to draw salaries, benefits

KARACHI: The city’s anti-corruption court has rejected the final charge-sheet of an embezzlement case in which a big fish of the education department was declared innocent, ordering a re-investigation of the case.

Karachi schools director Abdul Wahab Abbasi and other education and accounts officials were booked by the anti-corruption police for their alleged involvement in a corruption scam. According to the FIR registered in February, Abdul Wahab, along with his subordinates and other officials, was involved in preparing fake certificates and documents to give appointments and promotions to ghost teachers during 2012 and 2014. In this way, the fake teachers were able to illegally draw salaries, loans and other benefits, causing losses of millions of rupees for to national exchequer.

The director cited no confidence in the first investigation officer, Saeed Ahmed Rind, contending that the officer was harassing him. The investigation was handed over to Aijaz Abbasi, who surprisingly declared Abdul Wahab and others innocent in the charge-sheet submitted to the court, citing lack of evidence against them.

However, the special public prosecutor, Arif Siati, opposed the charge-sheet, stating that evidence was not properly collected during the investigation. He added that Rind had seized sufficient evidence from the suspects’ possession in the presence of a judicial magistrate. How could they now be simply given a clean chit, he asked.

The anti-corruption judge, Gulshan Ara Chandio, returned the charge-sheet, asking the IO to submit a fresh investigation report on the next hearing of the case. He also directed the IO to remove errors from the primary evidence and obtain the opinion of handwriting and forensic experts about the seized papers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2015.