Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Lok Virsa that is the place for public amusement, has now turned into safe den for drug addicts as the use of narcotics and liquor became common there under the supervision of corrupt staff deputed there.

Whenever any programme is held there the whole staff seems to be vacillated after taking heavy quantity of drink openly but there is no one to prevent from them from addiction.

Some of the citizens as well as some staff members also gave applications in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting against the illicit appointment of Executive Director, overstaffing of contract employees, massive corruption in the name of Lok Dhaba and common and open use of illegal drugs and liquor.

The Daily Times got the documents, which revealed that the Executive Director, Dr Fauzia Saeed resigned from the service in 1991 after the enquiry started against her. The department sent her Lahore for research on culture. She promoted her own NGO in the name of research and gave huge money to her friend, who was dancer in the red light area of Lahore from national exchequer. When the probe was stared against her, she resigned.

Now the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting reappointed her on the lucrative post of Executive Director despite the fact that she did not fulfill the conditions that were given in the advertisement floated in the media for the post.

After becoming the ED, first of all she deprived the right of poor pensioners by reducing their pension from Rs 2000 to Rs 1200 per month, which is like the nuts in the elephant’s mouth. On the other hand she appointed her 40 friends on Rs 8 million per month.

Their record has been sought by the NAB. Their salary is an additional load on the department.

One of the applications that are received in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting against the ED that in the name of Lok Dhaba she gave large space free of cost to a party, which sells very costly food to the visitors there. The hotel owner also opened almost ten shops on almost one kanal of state land with the connivance of Executive Director. The servants of the hotel are selling charas and other drugs openly. Not only the employees of Lok Virsa but the hundreds of outsiders are their regular customers.

The law enforcement agencies are also silent on the reason that they are reluctant to conduct raid on government functionary.

It was also learnt that Lok Virsa screens a movie every week on which the expenditures of Rs 18000 per week are being shown in the accounts documents. Moreover, Rs 1.8 million was released in one year for the improvement of Mandva Theatre from the national kitty but as a matter of fact no development work was carried out there physically.

One application against ED Dr Fauzia also showed that a Senator also lodged a complaint against her and some other staff members at Police Station Aabpara but they all got bail by hiring expensive lawyers, which were also paid form public fund.

The court issued order for the reinstatement of some terminated employees but the ED refused to obey the court orders. In this case hefty payments were also made to the lawyers from the national kitty.

The Daily Times also came to know that recently on the orders of ED, Lok Virsa Museum was closed for general public, where some female students were getting rehearsal for a dance party in which the musicians also took part. Due to closure of museum, department had to face loss of thousands of rupees. Some of the tourists also held demonstration against the illegal closure of the museum.

The Standing Committee of Senate would discuss the wrongdoings of the high-ups at Lok Virsa today (Tuesday) in which Dr Fauzia has been called in person to reply the allegations levelled against her. When this reporter tried to contact Administration Officer of Lok Virsa Yousaf Haroon , he did not picked the phone.