ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have emerged as the most corrupt among the federal and provincial government employees working in the provinces.

The highest number of corruption cases registered with the National Accountability Bureau involves the officers who worked in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between 2008 and 2011, but the amount embezzled by government employees in Balochistan is much higher than other provinces.

The Senate was informed on Thursday that cases against 159 government employees working in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been registered with NAB. They have been charged with embezzlement of Rs1.61 billion.

The amount involved in corruption cases of Balochistan is more than Rs2.22bn and cases have been registered against 81 officials.

The information was provided by Law Minister Farooq H. Naek in response to a question by MQM’s Nasreen Jalil who sought details of corruption cases registered against officials working in the four provinces.

The law minister said all 395 cases had been processed and registered with NAB. Fifty-two employees have allegedly embezzled Rs1.10bn in Punjab and 55 officials have been charged with committing corruption of Rs620.47 million in Sindh.

However, not all the charges are related to financial embezzlement. Some officials were allegedly involved in other malpractices, including misuse of authority, cheating of public at large, bank default and corrupt practices which have not been specified clearly.

Cases have been registered against 22 officers working in the federal capital. They have been charged with embezzlement of Rs1.36bn. The total number of cases registered against the officers and other employees working in Islamabad stands at 48.

The Senate was informed that during the period between 2008 and 2011 cases had been processed against 643 officials and Rs1.18bn had been recovered from them at the inquiry stage.