Officers probing Shehbaz, Tareen recalled

A day ago, FIA sources revealed the decision at critical juncture in cases had left the agency baffled

LAHORE:

A day after Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officers probing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and disgruntled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen were transferred, an official sought the cancellation of the order on Wednesday.

According to Express News, a director of the federal agency wrote to the director-general seeking annulment of the transfer.

On Tuesday, this paper reported that the said officers were investigating important cases, including the money laundering case against the opposition leader and his son.

Sources in the agency revealed that while the cases were in their final stages, and their challans submitted to the court, they were baffled at the decision.

The decision to transfer nine officers probing high-profile cases came soon after the resignation of PM’s aide on accountability Shehzad Akbar. They were posted under the command of additional FIA director general (South) Karachi.

The officials include FIA Lahore Assistant Director Syed Ali Mardan, who is also part of the JIT investigating cases against Shehbaz, Hamza and former FIA director general Bashir Memon. FIA Assistant Directors Emad Arshad and Rana Faisal, who were investigating important cases, were also transferred.

Abdul Qayyum, Zawar Ahmed, Shiraz Umar, Nadeem Ahmed and Sibghatullah Khan were also among the other assistant directors transferred.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Brigadier (retd) Musaddiq Abbasi would visit the Lahore office, where he would be briefed by Director Zone One Dr Muhammad Rizwan on important cases. He would also be briefed on the cases against the said political leaders, besides other cases, it added.

Earlier this week, during a meeting between Brig (retd) Abbasi and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the latter urged the newly-appointed official to work towards rectifying flaws in the prosecution process to “catch big fish”.

The meeting came at a time when the ruling PTI is under fire for not being able to act on its agenda of rooting out corruption. Recently, Pakistan went down 16 spots on the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), prompting the people to question the incumbent government’s anti-corruption stance.

During the meeting, Rashid guided Abbasi about government’s accountability drive, and called for speeding up the process to bring ongoing cases to a logical conclusion.