A big scandal has been unearthed in the purchase of as many as 20,000 tablets for the public schools in Punjab during the tenure of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, 24NewsHD TV channel Monday reported.

The Punjab School Education Department has sprung into action as the officials concerned have launched an inquiry into the purchase of the tables on higher prices, with each tablet worth Rs35,000 had allegedly been purchased for Rs48,900.

It has been learnt that a total of 20,000 Lenovo tablets [Model TB-8505X] had been purchased by the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) with funding from the World Bank (WB).

It has also been known that each of the tablets was worth Rs35,000. But, every single of them was purchased for Rs48,900 by the PMIU with Shahid-ur-Rehman as its director.

It is to be noted here that Shahid-ur-Rehman had got himself transferred soon after the ouster of the PTI-led government in Punjab.

Sources within the Punjab School Education Department have said that investigation into the purchase of expensive tablets is underway, adding more details will be divulged after scrutiny of the documents.