Daily Times

Former Balochistan finance secretary Mushtaq Raisani and former advisor to the provincial chief minister Khalid Lango have been awarded jail sentence in a graft case, besides confiscating their movable and immovable properties and 10-year disqualification for any public post.

Mushtaq Raisani was awarded 10-year imprisonment and former adviser on finance Khalid Lango will stay in jail for two years and two months. The reserved verdict was announced by Accountability Court, Quetta.

The NAB had started investigations of corruption of billions of rupees against the officers of local government and finance ministry of Balochistan. It was revealed during the course of investigations that former secretary finance Mushtaq Raisani in collaboration with Lango had devoured Rs 2.25 billion while releasing funds worth Rs 2.34 billion to two municipal committees of Khaliqabad and Machh. Following these revelations, a raid was conducted at the residence of Raisani and recovered an amount of Rs 800 million was seized. Around three kilograms of gold was also seized from his residence.

Frontman of Khalid Lango and co-accused Sohail Majeed Shah confessed the crime and returned Rs 960 million after striking a plea bargain with approval of the court. During the investigations, a sum of Rs 1 billion was recovered from Saleem Shah and his benamidars in shape of 11 properties of Defence Housing Authority Karachi. As many as Rs 130 million were recovered from co-accused Tariq and Naeem Iqbal through plea bargain. The plea bargain application of former secretary finance was rejected by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The NAB chairman has appreciated the performance of NAB Balochistan, saying that the bureau is making serious efforts to take the corruption cases to a logical conclusion.