Nab raid: Ex-secretary food held for wheat scam

QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested former Secretary Food Ali Bakhsh on Thursday over alleged embezzlement of wheat stock. Government buys wheat from farmers and sells to flourmills at subsidised rates to keep the price of staple down, however, the custodian of the public grain allegedly sold billions of rupees worth of wheat in open market. NAB picked up the retired bureaucrat from his plush home in the upscale locality of Quetta on Thursday morning. He faces corruption charges along with the ex-minister for food Asfandyar Kakar, who made billions of rupees from corruption in food subsidies, while millions of people starved in the impoverished Balochistan province. Although Balochistan High Court has rejected Kakar’s appeal for bail before arrest, there were no reports that he was arrested or not.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.