QUETTA: An accountability court on Tuesday awarded ten years imprisonment to Balochistan’s former secretary finance Mushtaq Raisani in a mega-corruption case
Accountability court judge Munawar Ahmad Shahwani announced the reserved verdict in the case. The court also handed 26 months jail term to former provincial adviser Mir Khalid Langove in the corruption case.
The presiding judge also ordered the confiscation of their movable and immovable assets worth billions of rupees and depositing the money into the exchequer. The accountability court disqualified both the convicts from holding any public and official posts for 10 years.
The court acquitted former secretaries local government Faisal Jamal and Hafiz Abdul Basit who were nominated in the case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against the accused in 2016. The anit-corruption watchdog investigated the case with help of officials of the local government and finance department.
The court had reserved its judgement after completing hearing of the case registered following the recovery of Rs630 million in cash, gold ornaments and bonds from the residence of Mushtaq Raisani. He was arrested along with Khalid Langove and some other official.
Balochistan’s former secretary finance was charged with committing corruption worth a staggering Rs2.24 billion, misuse of authority, and possessing assets beyond means.
On May 6, 2016, NAB recovered a ‘treasure’ of local and foreign currency and gold from the residence of Mushtaq Raisani. NAB officials raided Raisani’s house and recovered bundles of notes in local and foreign currency worth Rs630 million. The bundles of notes were stashed in large plastic boxes.
NAB has also seized prize bonds and vast amounts of gold. The officials had to bring in counting machines to count the currencies. The media had provided live coverage of the raid and exposed the corruption.
Khalid Langove’s frontman and co-accused Sohail Majeed Shah confessed to the crime and returned Rs960m to the government with the approval of the court. During investigation, Rs1bn was recovered from Saleem Shah others in the form of properties in Karachi.
NAB approved plea-bargain of co-accused Tariq and Naeem Iqbal and recovered Rs130m from them, whereas NAB rejected the plea-bargain application of Mushtaq Raisani.
