Human trafficking: FIA opens probe into Filipinas smuggling

Hamza Shehbaz lodged complaint against five men who had used his name in illegally bringing Filipinas to Pakistan.

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Punjab, opened  an investigation into the alleged illegal trafficking of Filipinas in Pakistan in response to a court order passed on July 10 by the additional sessions judge Lahore, Malik Tariq Mehmood Zarghan.

The orders under section 22 (A) came three months after Ayesha Ahad Malik, the self-proclaimed wife of Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, son of the Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, lodged a complaint against five men who had used his name in illegally bringing Filipinas to Pakistan.

The orders were passed by the court after FIA had failed to start an investigation basing on the complaint made by Malik.

The girls are illegally brought to Pakistan from the Philippines for low-wage jobs but are eventually forced into the business of prostitution or are made to work in massage centres in the posh areas of Lahore.

Malik accused Lorry, Vie Docog, Luz Barlance, Josef and Raja Mushtaq in her complaint, saying they had prepared a bogus employee contract using her name with fake signatures. She added that her name was being misused in the human trafficking case causing damage to her reputation.

She said that the accused had established a company under the name of Trust Associates for bringing the girls from the Philippines and subsequently providing them to different clients but she, on the other hand, was unaware and had no contact with anyone in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2012.