ISLAMABAD: A local court of Islamabad on Monday sentenced former Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Akhtar Buland Rana six months imprisonment for concealing Canadian nationality.

Senior Civil Judge Mohammad Shabbir also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on Mr Rana.

The court order read: `Accused Mohammad Akhtar Buland Rana is convicted under section 6 (c) of the Passport Act, 1974 for concealing his Canadian nationality.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) alleged that the former AGP had `wrongfully and with mala fide intentions` concealed his Canadian citizenship while filling and signing his declaration forms.

According to the FIR (67/2015), Rana obtained five Pakistani passports while still holding a Canadian passport.

Rana obtained the first passport from the regional office in Islamabad in 1998. The second one was issued from Toronto, Canada, in 2002. Two more official machine-readable passports (MRP) were issued in 2005 and 2011, respectively. T hen in 2012 he was issued a diplomatic passport. Apart from these passports, Rana was also holding a Canadian passport, which constitutes an offence under Section 6 of the Passport Act of 1974.

The passport directorate general website states that official passports are issued only to Pakistani nationals who are senators, members of parliament, provincial ministers, judges of high courts and the Supreme Court, and government of ficers going abroad on official assignments.

The investigation officer stated in his plea the case was registered against Rana on the complaint of the AGP office administration director, Mohammad Saleem Khan, with the consent of the relevant authority. The role of the passport office officials will also be figured out during the course of investigation, he stated.

In May 2015, the federal government sacked Rana after the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) found him guilty of misconduct.

In 2014, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report had revealed Rana withdrew Rs4.62 million from the national exchequer in excess of his salary and privileges in violation of rules and regulations.