QUETTA: An accountability court on Tuesday convicted serving Balochistan Local Government Secre-tary Mir Imran Gichki in a corruption case and sentenced him to five years in prison.

       After the sentence was announced, officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took Imran Gichki into custody, and he was sent to Quetta’s district jail.

       Accountability court judge Aftab Ahmed Lone also imposed a fine of Rs80 million on the convict, besides confiscating the cash and gold recovered from his home.

       The court, however, is yet to announce its judgement on the properties of the convict, which he has allegedly kept in the names of his relatives and benamidars.

       Imran Gichki had served as principal staff officer to former chief minister Nawab Aslam Raisani from 2008 to 2013. He also served as secretary of sports and culture in Balochistan.

       A spokesperson for NAB Balochistan told Dawn that the investigation against Imran Gichki revealed that he had accumulated properties worth millions of rupees in Islamabad and other parts of the country. He said that after gathering information and evidence against him, NAB raided his residence in Islamabad’s Bani Gala area and seized a huge quantity of gold, ornaments and foreign currency. NAB officials arrested him during the raid.

       The spokesperson said that on the basis of this evidence, NAB had filed a reference against Imran Gichki in the accountability court in 2016.

       Two other accused in the reference absconded.

       NAB prosecutor Mohammad Dawood Jan argued the case in the court.

       After Mushtaq Raisani, a former secretary of finance, Imran Gichki is the second serving officer of the Balochistan government who has been arrested by NAB and convicted by the accountability court.

       Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2022