Higher Education Department says no proof of corruption by using former Punjab CM
LAHORE: A file submitted by using the Higher Education Department (HED) to Punjab Assembly on Tuesday absolved the previous chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif, in a case bearing on embezzlement inside the authorities’ pc scheme for students.
In a written reply to a query submitted in Punjab Assembly, the HED admitted that neither any corruption may be discovered in laptops’ distribution, nor any of the gadgets had long past missing.
“The former authorities dispensed 414,848 laptops on the premise of advantage from 2012 to 2017,” read the response. It further said that the allegation of involvement of politicians or bureaucrats in irregularities as regards to laptops’ distribution was additionally no longer actual.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore has been engaging in an inquiry for the reason that March 2018, but not an unmarried man or woman become observed responsible for corruption. The inquiry also blanketed former director widespread of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Ahad Cheema.
According to the authorities document, one hundred ten,000 laptops, bought within the financial yr 2011-12, cost Rs4197 million, in which Rs3995 million had been spent on 100,000 laptops purchased in 2012-13. It similarly said that Rs4949 million and Rs6954 million were spent on the acquisition of laptops in 2013-14 and 2016-17, respectively.
The laptop distribution scheme aimed at the advancement of facts technology among college students via the provision of laptop computer systems. The Punjab authorities allotted 110,000 laptops to college students across the province allegedly to counter the growing reputation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan among the young people simply three hundred and sixty-five days earlier than the 2013 preferred elections.
However, a special audit carried out by the government’s very own wing – the Auditor General’s Office – mentioned critical corruption in the scheme.
