‘Resignation not accepted’: Malik says FIA chief still unchanged

Freeze on recruitment in FIA to go, creating 700 job vacancies.

ISLAMABAD:

Tehseen Anwar Shah is still functioning as the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the government has not accepted his resignation, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday.

“When his resignation is accepted, it will be announced. However, the government will comply with all Supreme Court orders,” Malik told reporters on his visit to the FIA headquarters.

Shah had sent his resignation to the government earlier last month after refusing to work under his junior officer, Additional Director General FIA Zafar Qureshi in the NICL scam.

Malik said Qureshi had been given a ‘free hand’ to work on the NICL scam, even though he repeatedly complained that the ministry and the FIA were not cooperating with him in probing the scam.

Freeze on recruitment lifted

The interior minister also announced the lifting of a freeze on recruitment in FIA against more than 700 vacant posts, adding that he will soon get a formal approval from the prime minister.

Last year, the government had placed a ban on recruitment in FIA and all advertised posts had been cancelled.

Malik also announced to raise the pay of FIA officials, bringing them at par with other police force personnel.

Cyber crime centre corruption

Taking notice of corruption allegations against officers of the National Response Centre for Cyber Crime (NR3C), the minister said that Deputy Director of NR3C Sajid Akram Chaudhary was made Officer on Special Duty (OSD) and an inquiry headed by the additional secretary of the interior ministry had been initiated.

The interior minister also ordered the FIA director-general to prepare a proposal for extending the agency’s operations into Fata and AJK, besides establishing a provincial level directorate in Gilgit-Baltistan.







Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2011.