ISLAMABAD:
Pakistani authorities have arrested a junior employee of the British High Commission (BHC) along with his accomplices on charges of human trafficking and forgery.
Khurram Shahzad Gill, a junior visa officer at BHC in Islamabad, was arrested by the anti-human trafficking wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Officials claimed that they have recovered UK sponsorship certificates and other documents, including passports, from Gill’s possession.
After investigation of the prime accused, the FIA took into custody three others people namely Alvin Earnest, Muhammad Ali and Uneeb from Rawalpindi.
The British High Commission on Saturday confirmed the arrest of a junior visa officer but did not give his name or other details.
“We can confirm that a junior member of the British High Commission visa section has been arrested. We are in contact with the FIA and we will cooperate with them in their investigation,” said a BHC spokesperson.
“These arrests were made after the FIA was tipped off that a visa officer in collaboration with some other persons was receiving heavy amounts for making counterfeit documents,” an FIA official said.
He said all the accused will be produced before a special duty magistrate today (Sunday) to get their remand.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2011.
COMMENTS (5)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
A junior visa officer at BHC in Islamabad, was arrested by the anti-human trafficking wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). That is particularly nice because it breaks the Trafficking process at the outset, before the damage been done. - Prof Patt, http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/
@Yousaf:
I totally agree. Recently, a documentary by DAWN news channel was aired. It showed shocking images of how pakistanis are living in UK. God be with them.
Vienna,09-10-2011 I believe it is a sting operation. It is too early to reveal details. Taravadu Taranga Trust for Media Monitoring TTTMM India --Kulamarva Balakrishna
Under the UKBA points based system certificate of sponsorships CoS are online virtual certificates so it’s interesting to read FIA claim that they "have recovered UK sponsorship certificates".
All certificates of sponsorships are issued online by those organisations in UK who have been given a sponsor licence by UKBA; each sponsor licence holder is issued with a user name and password for logging into the secure sponsorship management system and whatever is entered by them while issuing a CoS is saved electronically and accessible by approved UKBA officials around the world.
So it’s simply not possible to forge certificate of sponsorships in paper form.
I think UK has soften the visas for Pakistanis, any legal and legitimate application is considered and never turned back.
And by the way, why people are running from Pakistan to UK, now a days UK is not a nice place to live or work, things are very tighten and it's hard to find a job. Even the Brits are unable to find suitable jobs easily unless highly qualified.
Try to Google and check with the Pakistani students living in UK before you try to put a handsome amount to move to UK for nothing, instead invest that amount in Pakistan and live a better life.