A Pakistani bureaucrat was caught red-handed stealing the wallet of a member of a Kuwaiti delegation during the Pakistan-Kuwait Joint Ministerial Commission meeting.
Pakistan Toda y said that the suspect was identified as Investment and Facilitation Joint Secretary Zarar Haider Khan. The BS-20 officer was caught on CCTV swiping the wallet of a Kuwaiti diplomat after the meeting on Friday.
According to Dawn , a member of the visiting delegation complained to Pakistan officials that he lost his wallet containing a handsome amount of Kuwaiti dinar. This prompted a search of all rooms and offices in the Finance Ministry building.
Lower grade employees were questioned and frisked but the wallet remained missing. The CCTV camera installed at the hall, however, eventually revealed who committed the theft. The footage showed that the wallet was in the hands of a senior officer.
In the six-second video clip of the incident which has since went viral on social media, the bureaucrat can be seen lifting the wallet from the table and putting it into his pocket when all Kuwaiti delegates and ministry official had left the hall.
The controversial video shared on Twitter has so far been viewed more than 73,000 times since it was posted on Friday.
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
The suspect initially denied his involvement when he was questioned, but he finally brought out the wallet when the video was shown to him.
Pakistani officials then returned the wallet to the Kuwaiti delegate and apologized for the incident.
The members of the Kuwaiti delegation were reportedly fuming when they were informed what happened. The Pakistani officials eventually gave in to the insistence of the extremely angry Kuwaiti delegates to know the identity of the suspect. The Kuwaitis were also shown the CCTV footage.
An official of the Finance Ministry said that the incident brought shame to the country. The accused was later arrested and legal proceedings were initiated.
“All officers of the Ministry of Industries and Economics Affairs Division, as well as other participants, were shocked when the head of the Kuwaiti mission complained about the incident,” the Finance Ministry official said.
“This is a very unfortunate development that has brought a bad name to the country as well as the officers working here.”
An officer said that no one could have expected Zarar Haider to commit the theft because of his good reputation among his colleagues.
