Nominates three other staffers for arrest based on information revealed by 11 Afghans. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday arrested the assistant director of a passport office and nominated three other office staffers for arrest for alleged involvement in a fraudulent computerised national identity card (CNIC) and passport racket, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The move follows the arrest of 11 Afghan nationals and an agent of the Garden Town passport office a few days earlier. According to sources in the FIA, information gleaned from the Afghans and the passport office agent implicated the four officials – Garden Town passport office Assistant Director Iqbal Shahid, data entry operator Muhammad Ibrahim, clerk Rana Irfan and token operator Laqa Haider – and revealed an extensive network of agents and officials was involved in producing fraudulent passports and CNICs. FIA has also traced the person who attested the Afghan nationals’ forms, identified as Dharmpura Zakat Council Vice Chairman Tariq.
Talking to The Express Tribune, a member of the FIA team investigating the case said during interrogations, the Afghan nationals revealed they succeeded in obtaining CNICs after paying Rs170,000 each to two agents, identified as Amanullah and Liaquat Bhatti – who was arrested earlier along with the Afghans. He added that Amanullah and Bhatti were running the fraudulent CNIC and passport racket under the umbrella of the jointly owned Al Daim Travel Agency.
Amanullah disappeared immediately following Bhatti’s arrest. FIA has constituted various raiding parties to apprehend Amanullah, Tariq and the three passport office staffers nominated for arrest, according to FIA Anti Human Trafficking Circle Deputy Director Nasir Jameel Gujjar.
Meanwhile, FIA has also sought records from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to determine the role of its employees in the preparation of fraudulent CNICs.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 29th, 2012.
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1732643921-0/4548774-1403918848-(1)1732643921-0-270x192.webp "pakistan to strengthen naval defence with its first frigate sized warship")
@Jibran.
Typical apologist.
Do not try to bring religion into everything. This is about country that has been hijacked in the name of a religion. Take out your frustration elsewhere.
Can you tell if one of those fake passport holders was not involved in a suicide attack in Pakistan? The implication of this crime is huge but you have to think about it.
Let me assure you that your mindset is more dangerous than the typical Pakistani mindset.
@Ali: These guys should be tried for murder. Nothing less.
Typical Pakistani mindset. There is no crime, the sentence of which in Islam is not "wajib-ul-qatal".
Go...go...catch these SOB.....
These guys should be tried for murder. Nothing less.
just the tip of the iceberg.......
Ah leave them alone...they are just try to raise their families after. Hard days work.
Were all these hardened criminals new appointments or corruption is an integral part of our society for generations? We have to change and reform ourselves at all levels instead of waiting for somebody to descend upon us to change us.