A 22-grade officer of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) has allegedly committed suicide fearing a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference, his family stated on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the anti-graft watchdog had filed a reference against Khurram Humayon, the Controller General Accounts at the BISP. He had been one of the top BISP officials wanted by the NAB for the embezzlement of Rs. 1.657 billion.
The top administration of the BISP, including then Chairperson Farzana Raja, had been accused of awarding an illegal contract to an advertising agency that had caused a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
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A friend of Humayon’s family told the media that he had been under pressure due to the ongoing inquiry.
“In fact, it is the NAB investigation that caused his death today,” he said.
The family members of the deceased said that he had been deeply stressed because of the pressure from the NAB’s inquiry.
Police Confirms Suicide
The family informed the police that the deceased had committed suicide in the early hours of Tuesday.
“Yes, Khurram Humayun committed suicide. We also reported this incident in our ‘roznamcha’ for the record,” the in-charge Rawat Police Chowki (Bahria Town Phase VIII) Moeen Afzal said.
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NAB Shrugs Off Blame
NAB has categorically rejected the accusation that it is behind the suicide. Its spokesperson told the media that Humayon had been involved in this case for the last six months and had never been harassed by the NAB.
“He was a free man as we had filed the BISP reference more than six months ago. Now the reference is sub-judice. We totally reject the allegations and always believe in performing our duties as per the law,” the spokesperson said.
Letter to the MoF
A week before committing suicide, Humayon had written a letter to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) stating that he needed assistance in extricating himself from the case against him.
He had sent a copy of the interim reference that had been filed against him to the ministry and expressed his willingness to contest the case.
His letter read: “I, as the former Director General (Finance & Accounts) in the period, have been nominated as one of the co-accused in the Reference. I am writing this letter to bring to your notice that I intend to fight this case legally and contest all the allegations raised against me. It is my firm belief that with the help of Allah Almighty I would be able to establish my innocence”.
Humayon had also requested the Finance Secretary to make a decision about the continuation of his services as the Controller General of Accounts during the proceedings of the case.
