A public relations official in the DCO’s office has been sent back to the Directorate General of Public Relations to face a potential corruption and forgery inquiry after he was found in possession of 22 stamps.
Tariq Zaman, the DCO’s staff officer, and DSP (Town Hall) Qasim Khan went into the DCO’s public relations office on Monday evening and instructed Shoaib Raza, an article writer, to open his drawer after allegations of forgery and corruption surfaced against him.
Raza, who has served there for over a year, told them that he had lost his key, at which point the drawer was forced open. Inside were stamps of the Motor Vehicle Examiner’s Office, Defence police station, the Pak Polytechnic Institute and 19 private companies, as well as various property documents and requests for land acquisition, said officials at the DCO’s office.
Zaman confirmed to The Express Tribune that Shoaib Raza had been sent back to the DGPR and a letter had been sent on behalf of the city government requesting an inquiry.
The DCO’s office has not received a specific complaint of forgery or fraud against Ahmed, he said.
No FIR has yet has been lodged against Raza.
City government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, alleged that Raza had been running various illegal schemes generating documents and licences. “Many DGPR officials got weapons licences through him,” one official said.
According to a press release issued by the DCO’s office in October 2012, the Licence Branch had confiscated 800 fake arms licences in the preceding five months.
The search of Raza’s office space that led to the discovery of the stamps stemmed from another inquiry into corruption charges against Shahbaz Ahmed, a work-charge employee at the DCO’s public relations office.
Ahmed had been accused by a junior employee of charging commissions to get birth certificates made. Officials said that he had confessed to this before Zaman, telling him that he had done this for many city government employees.
During the inquiry, Shoaib Raza’s alleged role in making documents came up and the DCO’s staff conducted the search.
Past indiscretions
Raza has been accused previously of offences, said colleagues. Some two years ago, when working at the Electronic Media Section of DGPR, he had been found to have released false information about the principal of a girls’ college in Gulberg in an attempt to get her into trouble.
An inquiry led by Nabeela Ghazanfar, then the director for electronic media and currently the director for public relations to the inspector general of Punjab Police, found that Raza had tried to blackmail the principal in order to gain access to the girls’ hostel at the college.
Ghazanfar told The Express Tribune that during the inquiry, she had also found documents suggesting that Raza had indulged in bank fraud. She recommended that his services be terminated, but no action was taken on the inquiry.
DGPR officials said that they had sought to recall Raza from his city government posting seven months ago, but had been stopped by DCO staff. Zaman confirmed that he had opposed Raza’s return to the DGPR then, “as I was not aware what he was up to”.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2013.