916 officers with dual nationality, SC informed

AAG submits report compiled by FIA on civil servants working in federal, provincial departments

ISLAMABAD: The number of government officers holding dual nationality has reached 916, reveals a report submitted in the Supreme Court revealed on Wednesday.

Additional Attorney General Nayyar Rizvi in the report -- submitted on behalf of the FIA -- stated that out of 916 officers, 719 have voluntarily declared their nationality while the remaining 197 have concealed their nationalities.

The report states that the agency has obtained the record of 181,304 officials from the federal and provincial departments, according to which 719 have themselves declared their nationalities.

Of those officials, 487 belonged to federal departments while 232 are working in four provinces.

It is also submitted that 65 federal and 132 provincial government officials have concealed their nationalities. "Since March 31, 46 new officials have been deducted who hid their dual nationality."

Interestingly, the FIA states that 10 foreign national officials are also working in different departments out of whom two of them have concealed their nationalities.

The report further reveals that the number of dual national spouses has reached 989 -- 734 have voluntarily declared their status while 255 concealed the information.

Of the 734 declared dual national spouses, 461 belonged to the federal departments while 273 are working in provincial governments.

Likewise, out of 255 dual national spouses who hid the status of their nationality, 169 are spouses of federal officers while the remaining 86 are provincial officials' spouses.

It is also informed that 111 are foreign nationality-holder spouses, wherein 89 are declared and 22 have been deducted.



The FIA in its report has contended that all instances of detection of dual/foreign nationality have been supplemented with evidence of actual images of foreign passports of the government officers and spouses, which were captured during their international travel by FIA's IBMS at airports.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar will resume hearing in suo motu case initiated to find out the names of civil servants of grade 17 to 22 bearing two nationalities today (Thursday).

Meanwhile, AAG Rizvi submitted a report in the apex court about the measures taken to stop human trafficking.

According to the report, finance and establishment division secretaries have discussed the matter and submitted a summary to the prime minister for granting of funds to cover the financial expenditure of new posts in FIA, adding that the total cost of three sets of posts for one year is Rs117,252,212.

The summary requests the prime minister to approve 63 new posts in the FIA and grant Rs117,252,212 to cover the estimated expenditure for one year -- including the foreign exchange component of $323,788 and creation of a special task force comprising the FIA, IB and the Punjab police -- including special branch to curb and prevent migrant smuggling from central Punjab.

Earlier, submitting the report on the last month's killing of immigrants in Balochistan, the FIA informed the Supreme Court that 6,767 Pakistanis illegally entered the European Union (EU) during the ongoing year.

The report, submitted by the FIA director general, has been compiled in connection with suo motu case related to the killing of 20 people in Buleda area of Kech district near the Pakistan-Iran border on Nov 15.

The FIA report says that all the victims belonged to the eastern part of the country, especially the various districts of Gujranwala Division, and had reached western Balochistan in a bid to cross over into Iran illegally and make their way to Europe.

"These innocent victims were intercepted and killed by armed terrorists who intended to spread fear and hate among different communities of the country. At the time of the killing, the victims had not committed any crime and were well within their right to travel to that part of the country," it says.

The report reveals that Pakistan is among the fourth largest country in terms of its citizens who illegally entered the EU in the ongoing year, adding illegal migrants use Iran and Turkey to reach EU.

"As many as 80,040 Pakistanis have been deported from Iran, 10,476 illegal migrants were expelled from Turkey and more than 20,000 individuals were exiled from EU in last four years," it says, adding that Gujranwala is the hub of illegal migration to EU through land route featuring Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece.

The FIA says there is a need to improve cooperation with Pakistan-Iran border commission in respect of migration issues especially with regard to agents working in Iran.

"The FIA has moved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to organise an emergency meeting of the Pakistan-Iran border commission and to impress upon the Iranian authorities to arrest and prosecute the Iran-based traffickers," it says.

The Pakistan-Iran border is more than 900-km long. The management of the border is difficult as people of the same tribes live on both of its sides and move back and forth using unfrequented crossing points by availing 'Rahdari' system implemented by the local administrations.

In order to tackle illegal migration through the land route, Pakistan has established an Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to curb the human trafficking.

"The FIA believes that there is a need to improve coordination amongst members of the IATF," it adds.