QUETTA: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and anti-corruption authorities arrested former food minister Asfandyar Kakar and a deputy director of the food department after their bail applications were rejected by the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Wednesday.

According to NAB officials, the former minister and deputy director Zahir Jan were allegedly involved in embezzlement of wheat worth millions of rupees from the department.

They had filed bail applications in the BHC which were rejected. After the court rejected their applications, the former food minister was taken into custody by NAB, while Mr Jan was arrested by anti-corruption authorities on the court premises.

NAB officials claimed that the men had caused a loss of Rs2 billion to the national exche­quer by embezzling 256,000 bags of wheat from official warehouses in Pishin.

Nearly three years ago, NAB had filed three references against the former food minister regarding disappearance of the wheat bags.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2017