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Updated: Oct 01, 2018 08:34 IST

A senior Pakistani bureaucrat has been caught on camera pocketing a wallet mistakenly left behind by a member of a visiting Kuwaiti delegation at the finance ministry.

The finance ministry official was caught through CCTV footage after the members of the Kuwaiti delegation — in Islamabad to discuss plans to invest in Pakistan — lodged a strong protest.

In the six-second leaked video clip, which has gone viral on social media, the bureaucrat can be seen lifting the wallet from the table and putting it into his own pocket after the Kuwaiti delegates and other ministry officials had left the hall at the Economic Affairs Division after a meeting.

The issue came to light when a member of the Kuwaiti delegation lodged a complaint with Pakistani officials that his wallet had gone missing during the meeting. A search was conducted in the ministry and all the rooms and offices were combed. Even the lower grade employees of the ministry were quizzed and physically searched but nothing was found.

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

Later, footage captured by a CCTV camera installed at the hall was examined, which revealed that the theft was committed by the senior officer. When the officer was approached, he initially denied involvement, but produced the wallet after the footage was shown to him.

Local media reported that after the Kuwaiti official was informed about the recovery of his wallet, members of the delegation asked the authorities to identify of the culprit.

So far, no case has been registered with the police. The ministry said that an internal inquiry was in progress against the bureaucrat and further action would be taken keeping in view its recommendations.

When asked about the incident, information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that most of the current bureaucrats had got their “moral training” from previous governments.