A senior Pakistani civil servant has sparked an embarrassing diplomatic incident after being caught on CCTV apparently stealing the wallet of a visiting Kuwaiti delegate.

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The Kuwaiti delegation was in Islamabad to discuss investment plans “but the accused diplomat may have been in a rush to get some money from them as soon as possible”, says Zeenews.

The Kuwaitis first made a formal complaint to Pakistani officials during the mission when one visitor said his wallet had gone missing during the meeting.

Officials searched the Economic Affairs Division of Pakistan’s finance ministry and frisked employees but failed to locate the wallet.

It was only when the security team checked CCTV in the meeting hall to find “that a senior bureaucrat with the Pakistan Administrative Services was seen taking the wallet”, reports the Daily Telegraph.

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

The official reportedly denied involvement until he was confronted with the video and then produced the missing wallet.

Pakistani officials at first refused to tell their guests who the culprit was, until the Kuwaitis insisted and were shown the footage.

In the grainy video - which has subsequently gone viral on social media - the man is seen pocketing the wallet which was forgotten on the discussion table.

“An internal inquiry has been announced against the offending bureaucrat and further action would be taken following the inquiry's recommendations,” Dawn a leading Pakistani newspaper reported.

Pakistan's new prime minister, Imran Khan, “has long pledged to clean up government and has for years railed against the graft and corruption among senior politicians and officials”, the Telegraph says.

When questioned about the incident, Fawad Chaudhry, information minister, told a press conference that most of the civil service had their “moral training” during the previous governments.