GILGIT — The Anti-Corruption Court of Gilgit-Baltistan has sentenced three Food Department employees to life imprisonment after finding them guilty of smuggling 100,000 kilograms of wheat and selling it on the black market.
The convicts include a manager and two other employees of the Food Department. The court also imposed a fine of Rs10 million on each of the three convicts.
According to the verdict, their movable and immovable properties will be confiscated if they fail to pay the imposed fines.
Police arrested all three convicts from the courtroom following the announcement of the verdict and transferred them to jail.
Anti-Corruption Court Gilgit-Baltistan Judge Mahmood-ul-Hassan announced the verdict against convicts Basit Ali, Ehsan Ali, and Abid Ali.
The ruling marks a significant development in the corruption case involving the alleged illegal diversion and black-market sale of government-supplied wheat in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The federal government provides wheat to Gilgit-Baltistan at subsidized rates. However, reports have repeatedly emerged alleging that Food Department officials, in collusion with a transport company, were diverting subsidized wheat to private flour mills for sale on the black market.
In connection with the case, the Anti-Corruption Establishment of Gilgit-Baltistan also arrested Mukhtar Ahmed Mir, an Assistant Director in the Food Department, last week.