Taking on the army: Two GPO clerks jailed for 12 years each

Officials convicted of embezzling pensions worth millions.

PESHAWAR: An accountability court sentenced two clerks of the General Post Office to 12 years imprisonment each on Tuesday for embezzling the pension of retired army personnel and imposed a fine of Rs90 million.

Accountability court judge Zarqaish Sani convicted Noor Shad and Nuzhat Begum on different references of corruption filed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa National Accountability Bureau. Four others in the same case were acquitted due to lack of solid evidence.

NAB received several complaints over the corrupt practices after which it arrested six people, including wing clerks Nuzhat Begum and Noor Shad as well as Babu Jan, Umer Daraz, Sultan Hussain and Asmatullah.



It was discovered that some of these officials had withdrawn ghost pensions and put them into their personal accounts. NAB arrested them and filed two references worth Rs49.5 million and Rs12.1 million in 2006.

There were around 300 witnesses who recorded statements during the trials of the suspects. The accountability court announced its verdict on Tuesday which sentenced Nuzhat Begum and Noor Shad to 12 years of imprisonment each. Meanwhile, Babu Jan, Umer Daraz, Sultan Hussain and Asmatullah were acquitted.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2015.