Warrants for 13 XENs for Rs650m graft

LAHORE: Judicial Magistrate of District Courts Imtiaz Bajwa Tuesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for 13 XENs of Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) on the charges of embezzling Rs650 million in connivance with ghost pensioners.

The XENs include Raja Mehmood Ahmad, Ayub Afzal, Rai Muhammad Asghar, Izhar Altaf, Shahid Rashid Toor, Muhammad Nasir, Malik Zahid Qayyum, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Saeed Rana, Chaudhry Manzoor Hassan, Nadeem Malik, Zulfiqar Ali Baluch and M Ramzan Butt. 

The court has also issued arrest warrants for 13 other Lesco officials and ghost pensioners, including Rana Saeed Akhtar DAO Lesco, Muhammad Farooq Revenue Officer (RO), Muhammad Imran Gill RO, Iqbal Aner RO, Shahid Hussain RO and DAO Mubashir Ali. The ghost pensioners include Muhammad Abbas, Saghir Masih, Naila Nadeem, Waseem Allah Ditta, Sani William, Rohail Raza and Kausar Bano.

The court has issued arrest warrants for the accused on the request of FIA Special Investigation Unit.

As per FIA investigation, Lesco XEN Raja Mehmood Ahmed embezzled Rs365,515 in pensioners fund, XEN Rai Asghar committed fraud of Rs1,044,142, XEN Azhar Altaf embezzled Rs4,644,833, XEN Muhammad Nasir Rs1,044,800, XEN Malik Zahid Qayyum Rs1,381,452, XEN Muhammad Iqbal Rs10,967,388, XEN Mujahid Saeed Rana embezzled Rs28,353,255, XEN Chaudhry Manzoor Hussain Rs6.1 million, XEN Nadeem Malik committed fraud of Rs70.5 million, XEN Zulfiqar Ali Baluch Rs4.6 million, XEN Ramzan Butt Rs2.7 million.

The Lesco Revenue Officers include Muhammad Farooq Rs5 million, RO Imran Gill Rs35 million, RO Iqbal Noor Rs20.3 million, RO Shahid Hussain Rs629,000, Lesco DAO Ayub Afzal Rs1.3 million, DAO Shahid Bashir Rs668,000, DAO Rana Saeed Akhtar Rs40.2 million, DAO Mubashar Ali Rs3.3 million. As per FIA investigation, ghost pensioner Muhammad Abbas
in collaboration with the Lesco officials received Rs6,223,261 from pensioner fund, Saghir Masih received Rs436,000, Naveed Asif Rs8.4 million, Naila Nadeem Rs2.5 million, Waseem Allah Ditta Rs5.1 million, Sunny William Rs510,000, Rohail Raza Rs77,065, Kausar Bano Rs7.6 million.

The FIA investigation officer Tuesday appeared before the court and contended that the accused persons while working in pension section, XEN office, Lesco Lahore, misused their authority and embezzled approximately Rs650 million. He implored the court to issue their non-bailable arrest warrants. The court after hearing, the FIA’s plea has issued arrest warrants for the accused persons by October 2.