Progress report: FIA Punjab recovers Rs3.2 billion in 2010

Documents issued by the agency claim that it closed 2,212 cases of corruption during 2010.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab last year recovered Rs3.2 billion against a target of Rs15 billion lost in corruption over the past year.

In this regard, 3,000 cases were filed against public officeholders and private individuals allegedly involved in corruption. A special FIA team registered 5,961 inquiries last year and sent over 2,602 cases to special courts, where 1,607 persons were convicted.

Documents issued by the agency claimed that it closed 2,212 cases of corruption while some 22 top Punjab bureaucrats were charged. Investigation teams also arrested 1,371 individuals while names of 19 people were put in the FIA Red Book, the documents stated.

According to the agency’s performance report for the last year, “FIA Punjab recovered Rs2.17 billion out of Rs8 billion embezzled in the National Insurance Company Ltd (NILC) scam so far.”

An amount of Rs50 million of Rs180 million was recovered from former president and other officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) during trials in special courts of Lahore. The FIA team is still conducting inquiries into the matter.

A special team recovered Rs3.8 million of Rs15 million embezzled by Abdul Rauf, member of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources. The case is currently being pursued in court.

Officials of a branch of the Habib Bank Limited in Gujrat stole Rs8 million but they never returned the money.

FIA also recovered an amount of Rs195 million from those involved in the misappropriation of Railways scrapped material and a sum of over Rs220 million was recovered in an operation in Model Town after 28 kilogrammes of gold was stolen.

A two-member team of FIA Punjab initiated an inquiry against directors of Fawad Textile Mill in connivance with Muccadam Company which misappropriated a pledged stock of 17,390 bales of cotton yarn and 2,163 bales of cotton valuing Rs287 million. The team failed to deliver any positive results in this case.

However, FIA Punjab chief Zafar Ahmad Qureshi said that the federal investigators produced better results than in the previous years. “The Rs4 billion figure of recovery is a record. FIA Punjab tried its best to nab the culprits,” Qureshi told The Express Tribune.

FIA Punjab also initiated inquiries against 19 corrupt officials of the agency and action was taken against them on the directions of Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2011.