PTC embezzlement case has rocked Punjab police after an official inquiry held the former commandant of Police Training College Lahore and eight other officers guilty of misusing Rs226 million. The Punjab government quickly made Mehboob Aslam Lilla an officer on special duty right after the report came out.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had ordered the probe when an internal audit of the college accounts revealed major financial irregularities during Lilla’s 32-month term as commandant. The committee, led by Additional IG Investigation Shahzada Sultan and including AIG Rana Masoom, finished its work a few days ago. The report used strong words like corruption, bogus inspections and fake billings, confirming that the charges against Lilla and six other officers, including a DSP, were true.
Lilla, who was also serving as DIG Elite Force, has now become the first DIG-rank officer to face a regular inquiry by the Establishment Division in Islamabad. The Punjab government has also sent the report to Anti-Corruption Punjab DG Sohail Zafar Chatha so that criminal cases can be registered against all the named officials.
A key figure in the scam is vendor Yasir Ayub. Staff at the college used to call him the “deputy commandant” because of the open support he received from the top leadership. The inquiry found that Yasir ran the PTC Lahore like a private business through five or six companies he controlled and drained large sums of public money.
The report detected corruption in more than 12 different accounts. These included Rs4.1 million from training-aid funds, Rs90.7 million from money given by Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority, and Rs20 million meant for free meals of under-training staff. Lilla was the final sanctioning authority for these payments. Investigators proved the fraud through fake paper trails, false inspection reports and invented entries.
The same inquiry also held DSP Shahid Javed, a senior clerk-accountant and six other college employees responsible for corruption, fraud and forgery. The whole matter first came to light when the new commandant, retired DIG Capt Sohail Chaudhry, noticed irregularities after taking charge in February 2026 and asked for an internal audit. That audit, followed by the high-level committee, finally exposed the full scale of the Rs226 million scam
