LAHORE: Bait ul Mal Chairman Malik Azam on Wednesday denied allegations the Kashana Lahore Welfare Home was being used to supply underage girls to influential ministers in the Punjab Government claiming that the allegations were ‘PML-N drama’.
Speaking to Geo News, Azam said that an inquiry had been initiated against the former superintendent of Kashana Lahore, Afshan Latif, three months ago.
“After corruption allegations were proven against Latif, we took back the right of disbursement of public funds from her,” he said.
He said that neither Latif nor any of the girls’ relatives had signed on any form claiming that the orphans had been subjected to sexual harassment.
“In the first inquiry, her allegations were proven false,” said Azam.
Azam alleged that Latif’s husband is a die-hard PML-N worker hence this whole thing was a ‘drama’.
What are the allegations?
Afshan Latif on Tuesday petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) regarding her allegation that the facility is being used to supply underage girls to powerful ministers of the Punjab government.
Last week, Latif in a series of videos posted on social media, had accused the Punjab government of persecuting her for bringing the matter to light.
Latif had alleged that even after her appointment, the illegal practices continued at the centre. She had filed a complaint to her department against the Director-General of Kashana, Afshan Kiran Imtiaz. The complaint stated that Imtiaz was pressuring Latif to marry underage girls to high-ranking officials.
In her petition filed in the LHC today, Latif requested that a judicial commission be formed to investigate the matter. Subsequently, the court summoned DC and the director of Darul Amaan.
Latif said that she had knocked on every door for justice, but when no one heard her, she turned to social media.
She said that this was not about her but about the future of the girls at Darul Amaan.
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Is a national and foreign correspondent based in D.C. She files investigative reports and covers breaking news on a range of topics, including corruption, police shootings, etc. Before joining the TimWorld in 2018, she worked at the Miami Herald. She was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University.
