FIA unearths Rs139 mn 'fraud' in Pakistan Post, 13 employees held

KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday unearthed an irregularity of Rs 139 million in the saving account of the Pakistan Post offices in Karachi and arrested 13 employees for allegedly committing the fraud, ARY NEWS reported.

According to Director FIA Sindh Munir Ahmed Shaikh, the action was carried out by the commercial banking circle of the agency.

“13 employees of the general post office (GPO) have been arrested so far and booked under five cases in Karachi,” he said adding that some of them ran away as authorities are going after them to apprehend them.

They are blamed for corruption using fake signatures, fake transfer of money and alteration in the records. “The accused are involved in looting public money from savings accounts of the post office,” the FIA Sindh director said.

We have taken all records into our possession, he said and announced that records of six more general post offices (GPOs) are under scrutiny to ascertain any wrongdoing.

The FIA has decided to investigate all officials of the general post office in Karachi in this matter.

Earlier in an action against the government officials in the province on February 29, FIA started sending notices to government officials who were illegally registered on Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).

The notices summoned those involved in the exercise and will be grilled by the agency for maintaining BISP accounts in their name and swindling the deserving and needy from their right.

The officers have been called to appear at the FIA corporate crime circle.

938 government officials of Sindh government have been reaping benefits from the income support program for the past few years.

17 and 20th-grade officers are also among the 938 involved in the criminal activity.