Obstructing probe?: FIA officers transferred to save visa consultant

Notification issued by cabinet secretariat.

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab chapter has received a notification that the Deputy Director at the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) Nasir Jameel, investigating an influential wanted by the FIA in over 70 criminal cases, has been transferred without any reason being assigned, The Express Tribune has learnt .

The contents of the notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariat Establishment Division, stamped and signed by the deputy secretary to the government of Pakistan, Khialzad Gul, said eight officers, presently posted in the FIA under the ministry of interior on deputation basis, were to be repatriated to their parent offices with immediate effect.

In its landmark judgment on November 12, the Supreme Court held that appointments, removals and promotions be made in accordance with the rules, and discretion if exercised must be done so in a transparent manner; that tenure, posting and transfer must adhere to the rules; that civil servants must not obey illegal orders of superiors; and that officers should not be posted as OSD (officer on special duty) without compelling reasons.



Contrary to the SC order, the government has not cited any reason regarding the transfer of Jameel and other officers of the probe team, according to official orders obtained by The Express Tribune.  Before Jameel’s transfer, four other members of a probe team investigating Asim Malik, chief executive of visa consultant company Future Concern, were also transferred or repatriated to their parent departments.

Additional Director FIA Jawad Qureshi, who was heading the probe committee on the orders of the Lahore High Court, was also among the officers transferred to save the skin of Asim Malik, sources familiar with the matter revealed.



Be that as it may, investigation team members have still managed to register 70 cases against Malik in compliance with Lahore High Court orders in the case involving extortion amounting to over Rs400 million by allegedly defrauding several customers by not securing visas for them and not refunding them, sources familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

The FIA, however, has been unable to arrest the accused due to the blessings of an influential federal minister, who is reportedly hiding in Islamabad and despite repeated orders of the court for his immediate arrest.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2012.