Pakistani official caught stealing Kuwaiti delegate’s wallet on CCTV. Watch video

A senior Pakistani bureaucrat was caught on camera stealing a wallet belonging to a member of a Kuwaiti delegation in Islamabad recently, Pakistan media reported.

According to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the theft was committed by a grade-20 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Services Group, deployed at the finance ministry.

News channel Samaa.tv identified the official as joint investment and facilitation secretary, Zarar Haider Khan, attending the two-day Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission meeting.

In a video of a CCTV clip that has now gone viral, the official is seen lifting the wallet from a table and pocketing it when the Kuwaiti delegates and finance ministry officials had left the hall at the Economic Affairs Division after the meeting, the newspaper said.

Grade 20 GoP officer stealing a Kuwaiti official's wallet - the official was part of a visiting delegation which had come to meet the PM pic.twitter.com/axODYL3SaZ

— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) September 28, 2018

After Kuwaiti officials complained, a thorough search was conducted and employees questioned and searched physically. Later, examination of the CCTV footage showed Zarar Khan stealing the wallet, Dawn reported, adding that no complaint had been lodged with the police.

Sources in the ministry said an internal inquiry was on against the bureaucrat and further action would be taken, the paper said.

It also reported that the Pakistani officials were initially reluctant on revealing the identity of the culprit to the angry Kuwaiti delegates, but did so later and also showed them the footage.

Dawn also said that Information minister Fawad Chaudhry had told media briefing that most of the present bureaucrats had got “moral training” during the previous governments.

First Published: Sep 30, 2018 16:54 IST