PM orders action against FIA officials involved in human trafficking

Such incidents tarnish Pakistan’s global image and must be dealt with swiftly and effectively, says Shehbaz Sharif

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed strict action against officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) involved in facilitating human traffickers, following the tragic Greek boat incident in which at least five Pakistani nationals are dead.

The PM issued these directives during a meeting on Friday in Islamabad, aimed at addressing the growing issue of human trafficking.

PM Shehbaz instructed the relevant authorities to expedite the ongoing investigation into human trafficking and present concrete recommendations as soon as possible. He stressed that such incidents tarnish Pakistan’s global image and must be dealt with swiftly and effectively.

"The delay in taking action against those responsible for last year's boat capsizing incident is concerning," he remarked, adding, "We cannot allow this to continue, as these tragedies only harm our country’s reputation."

The meeting was briefed on the preventive measures taken to combat human trafficking and provided an update on the recent Greek boat incident.

On Thursday, the Pakistani mission in Greece confirmed that five Pakistani nationals were among those who perished in a migrant boat tragedy near the Greek island of Gavdos. The mission stated, however, that it had "no concrete information" regarding the number of Pakistanis still missing.

An official from the Pakistan mission in Greece provided the following update: "So far, we have identified five dead Pakistanis and rescued 47 others. There is no concrete information about missing persons at this stage, and this is the final information available."

In response to reports from local media, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, confirmed that the government had already released the official death toll, stating there were no further updates at this time.

It is important to note that on Thursday, while launching a major crackdown on human smugglers involved in the deadly boat tragedy, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered cases against three traffickers and arrested two of its own officers for negligence.

According to an official FIA statement, two officers – Inspector Zubair Ashraf and Sub Inspector Shahid Imran – were arrested for neglecting their duties during passenger screening at Faisalabad Airport.

Both officers were serving as shift in-charges when the 18 victims of the Greece boat disaster passed through the screening process.