Lahore’s Walled City Authority staffer booked for allegedly making away with over Rs15m

LAHORE: Police have launched a manhunt for an employee for allegedly stealing over Rs15.8 million from the account of the state-run Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA).

The theft was discovered during a financial reconciliation process on June 23, prompting a formal criminal complaint lodged by WCLA Deputy Director of Law, Muhammad Rizwan, at the Civil Lines Police Station in Lahore.

According to the FIR, the suspect, identified as Azam Ali, a computer operator in the authority’s accounts department, allegedly gained access to the organisation’s primary bank account.

According to the FIR, the suspect forged the signature of the WCLA director of administration on official cheques to clear unauthorised transactions. Rather than taking the money in cash, the suspect systematically routed the funds electronically to mask his tracks, police said.

“The suspect transferred the stolen amount from the institution’s account into the private bank accounts of his wife, Saba Azam, his father, Jamaat Ali, and several other close relatives,” a Lahore police investigator said.

The scale of the breach widened when management discovered that the suspect did not merely forge individual cheques, but absconded with a complete official checkbook containing serial numbers ranging from 2002273601 to 2002273700.

The police have registered the First Information Report (FIR No 578/26) under sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for cheating), and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Police said that a specialised investigative team has frozen the recipient bank accounts linked to Ali’s family members and is conducting raids across the province to apprehend the fugitive official and recover the stolen state funds.