Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Balochistan Assembly (BA) Speaker Raheela Hamid Durrani is said to have sent her nephews to Japan as members of a scouts delegation to attend the World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) last year by misusing her powers.

Office-bearers of the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA) also included unauthorised persons in the 100-member PBSA delegation and sent them to Japan by showing them as scouts amid reports that they grabbed millions of rupees from them for the Japanese visa.

By despatching fake scouts to Japan, the PBSA encroached upon the rights of real scouts for the sake of money minting.

Sources told Daily Times that a 100-member scouts delegation was sent to Japan to attend the 23rd WSJ, which was held in Japan last year on July 28. Noman Durrani and Moizullah, nephews of the BA speaker, were allegedly included as scouts in the delegation despite the fact that they had never served as scouts. They were issued Japanese visas, and they availed shopping, hotelling and touring facilities in Japan on the government’s expense.

Then chief commissioner, Abdul Karim Baloch, self-styled acting secretary Zahid Mehboob, PIA provincial commissioner Shoaib, deputy chief commissioner Sajjad Masood Chishti, Balochistan Scouts Association provincial secretary Sabir Hussain Niazi and Sindh vice provincial commissioner Abid Ali Shah allegedly collected million of rupees from fake scouts and got issued visas of Japan to them. They were made part of the 100-member PBSA delegation.

Sources told Daily Times that those sent illegally to Japan as fake scouts disappeared after reaching there. The number of scouts who returned to Pakistan on the conclusion of the Jamboree was highly thin as compared to those sent as members of the delegation.

Some persons who were sent to Japan under the guise of scouts earned a bad name for Pakistan. They allegedly gang-raped an 18-year-old British girl and fled. One man, Ramesh Khan, was arrested by the Japanese police.

When contacted by Daily Times for his stance, PBSA Secretary Zahid Mehboob said that the two nephews of BA Speaker Raheela Durrani were regular scouts.

He further said, “Letters were sent to the provincial headquarters for sending scouts abroad. They selected the boys on their own from different districts and informed the central headquarters in writing about the boys. Then lists are finalised and sent to the embassy. We have nothing to do with them.”