PAK OFFICIAL STEALS KUWAIT DELEGATE’S WALLET

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani bureaucrat has been caught on camera pocketing a wallet mistakenly left behind by a member of a visiting Kuwaiti delegation at the finance ministry.

The finance ministry official was caught through CCTV footage after the members of the delegation — in Islamabad to discuss plans to invest in Pakistan — lodged a strong protest.

In the six-second leaked video clip, which has gone viral on social media, the bureaucrat can be seen lifting the wallet from the table and putting it into his own pocket after the Kuwaiti delegates and other ministry officials had left the hall at the Economic Affairs Division after a meeting.

The issue came to light when a member of the Kuwaiti delegation lodged a complaint with Pakistani officials that his wallet had gone missing during the meeting. Footage captured by a CCTV camera installed at the hall was examined, which revealed that the theft was committed by the senior officer. When the officer was approached, he initially denied involvement, but produced the wallet after the footage was shown to him.

So far, no case has been registered with the police. The ministry said that an internal inquiry was in progress against the bureaucrat.

When asked about the incident, information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that most of the current bureaucrats had got their “moral training” from previous governments.