BISP vendors arrested for fleecing beneficiaries in Bahawalpur

BAHAWALPUR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested two vendors in Bahawalpur on allegations of unlawfully withholding part of payments meant for beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), officials said.

The arrests were made on Jhangiwali Road on Monday. The suspects were identified as Muhammad Waqar Ahmed Shah and Muhammad Salman. Beneficiaries had complained to the agency that the two men were deducting between Rs1,000 and Rs1,500 from each payment. Following the complaints, the FIA detained both suspects and recovered cash as well as the computerised national identity cards of several women receiving BISP assistance from their possession.

Action taken in Vehari

In a related development, Assistant Director Sheikh Muhammad Husnain Raza of BISP Mailsi in Vehari district said the devices of seven vendors had been blocked. He added that a case against one vendor had been filed in court.

Woman proclaimed offender arrested in Burewala

Separately, City Police Burewala in Vehari district arrested a woman who had been declared a proclaimed offender in a fraud case registered three years ago. Police identified her as Rubina Bibi alias Sumaira Bibi, a resident of village Inayati in the jurisdiction of Khairpur Tamewali Police Station in Bahawalpur district.

She was wanted in a first information report registered on July 6, 2023. In the FIR, Sub-Inspector Shamshad Ali alleged that Rubina, along with five other nominated individuals — Sultan Ahmed, Ashiq Ali, Muhammad Waseam and two unidentified persons — had implicated him in a fabricated rape case. He stated that Rubina and her associates then tried to blackmail him by demanding Rs1.5 million in exchange for securing his release from the false allegation and threatened him with serious consequences.

He further stated that a police investigation on Nov 3, 2023, cleared him in the case, and that the magistrate endorsed the police findings. Police said a check of Rubina’s previous record showed that she headed a group allegedly involved in registering false cases against people at several police stations in Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh in order to extort money. A police public relations officer said that after the FIR was registered in 2023, she went into hiding and was later declared a proclaimed offender by the court.