QUETTA: An accountability court in Quetta convicted on Wednesday two government officials in a wheat embezzlement case.

Asadullah Kakar, deputy commissioner of Dera Bugti and former deputy director in the food department, was sentenced to three-year rigorous imprisonment. Ghulam Sarwar, supervisor at the food department’s Provincial Reserve Centre in Sariab area of Quetta, was awarded five-year jail term with Rs87.938 million fine.

Mr Sarwar was found guilty of misappropriating as many as 51,293 bags of wheat from the Quetta centre. Mr Kakar was declared guilty of submitting false evidence to the court. Two other accused — Taj Mohammad Sarpara, former in-charge of the centre, and Asghar Ali, assistant director of the department — have already been sentenced to three-year imprisonment each in absentia.

According to details, National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) officials on complaints raided the Quetta centre and found 51,000 bags of wheat missing from there.

After an investigation, the NAB filed a reference in the court with evidence.

During the proceedings, Mr Kakar initially withheld the record about the wheat stock and submitted a forged document to conceal misappropriation of wheat bags.

Announcing the verdict, judge Abdul Majored Nasal declared that Mr Kakar was guilty of submitting fabricated and false evidence to the court.

Mr Sarpara and Mr Ali have evaded arrest and have been declared proclaimed offenders. The NAB has mounted a search for them.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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