NICL scam: FIA vigilance defeated as Dada slips abroad

FIA trying to determine whether he used a fictitious identity or not.

LAHORE: Amin Qasim Dada, a proclaimed offender and a man wanted by federal investigators because of his alleged involvement in the National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) scam, is said to have given law-enforcement officials the proverbial slip, travelling abroad under their very noses despite his name being on the exit control list (ECL).

Officials told The Express Tribune that Dada, one of the directors of NICL, is said to have flown on the midnight of December 28-29 last year.

Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said that they have managed to get the phone number he is using in the United Kingdom, adding that he had also called from his cell phone to a number in Dubai on February 9.

After learning this, Zafar Ahmad Qureshi, the additional director-general of FIA, has constituted an inquiry committee led by Azhar Mehmood, FIA’s deputy director, immigration, to probe the matter.

The inquiry team is compiling details of travelers from who went abroad from Karachi airport between these dates, and is also going through passenger manifests of all flights during this period. The team is also trying to determine whether he went abroad using his own name or under fictitious particulars.

The FIA is also seeking the latest call data record along with information about the point of origin of calls from an intelligence agency.

FIA is also learnt to have decided to contact Interpol for Dada’s immediate arrest.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2011.