The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday registered a case against Asad Ali, British tabloid The Sun’s undercover agent, on charges of providing misleading information in the declaration form he filled to obtain a Pakistani passport.
The FIA also decided to contact the international police organisation, Interpol, to issue a red warrant against Ali, declaring him the main accused in the UK travel scandal. FIA Director General (DG) Muhammad Anwar Virk also visited the agency’s Lahore office to get an updated briefing on the investigation into the scandal.
DG Virk directed the FIA to register the case with its Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) in Lahore against Pakistani-born British citizen Ali, on charges of concealing information regarding him obtaining a Pakistani passport through a manual system in 2000 and having a UK nationality when he applied for the machine readable passport recently. He has also been charged with defaming Pakistan and hatching a conspiracy against the state.
While talking to The Express Tribune, DG Virk said Interpol was approached to arrest and bring Ali to Pakistan. He added that the government has also started discussions with its British counterpart to complete his deportation process from the UK.
The FIA also wrote a letter to The Sun to seek assistance with the investigation. The letter said, “The report and video prepared by The Sun in this regard do not match facts as unearthed by us, hence, we would like to have some concrete evidence from you in support of the above.” It added that the allegations levelled in the story were of a very serious nature and needed concrete evidence to prove the scandal.
Four NADRA, Passport officials acquitted
Meanwhile, four officials of the National Database and Regulatory Authority (Nadra) and the Passport and Immigration Department have been acquitted by the court on the FIA’s request on Monday, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Judicial magistrate Sohail Anjum released the officials, identified as Faheem Shahzad, Ghaffar Ali, Syed Wasif and Asif Sadiq.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2012.
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