Purging the watchdog: FIA declares 62 of its officials ‘corrupt’

Agency establishes accountability cell.

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has listed its 62 officials as “corrupt” and immediately removed them from their assignments, a source said on Sunday.

The copy of an official document available to Express Investigation Cell (EIC) suggests that majority of alleged “corrupt” officials were found involved in serious crimes like facilitating human smuggling and damaging facts during investigations of high profile mega frauds cases.

The “corrupt” officials of other departments have been surrendered to their parent departments and while regular employees will be served notices to face internal probe.

A senior official said a serious question mark had been raised over the credibility of the FIA as an organisation in the recent years.

“Many FIA officials with tainted credibility were posted at lucrative positions by the PPP government and their involvement in corrupt practices damaged the credibility of the department,” the official said.

According to the official, most of the alleged corrupt officials of the FIA were enjoying their assignments at lucrative posts like Anti Human Smuggling Cell (AHSC) and immigration office at Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA), Islamabad for years and each one of them was a known source of income for their seniors.

The list of alleged corrupt officials included three FIA officers Afzal Khan Niazi (inspector), Amanullah Khan (ASI) and Sajid Munir (FC) who allegedly helped an Afghan national get aboard a UK bound flight last month.

The Afghan national reportedly travelled on Pakistani passport from the BBIA Islamabad to London and was caught by UK airport authority and sent back to Islamabad airport.

The gang of these three FIA officials allegedly got the Afghan national cleared from the BBIA Islamabad airport on his return and later it helped him run away to avoid arrest.  After media reports, Interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, took notice of the incident and ordered inquiry against the gang besides suspending all three officials involved in the case.

The list also included Rizwan Aslam, a grade 16 official, who has been accused of damaging facts of the Rs44 billion Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) fraud to protect its main accused Zafar Gondal.

After doubting credibility of Rizwan Aslam who hails from Zafar Gondal’s hometown Mandi Bahauddin, the FIA had separated him from EOBI investigations and transferred him from Islamabad to Quetta.

Sajid Akram (deputy director) has been transferred from the AHTC to zonal office Islamabad. Aslam Zeb (assistant director) has been transferred from the FIA immigration Peshawar Airport to C&I cell FIA headquarter Islamabad.

Talking to the EIC, the FIA Director General Saud Mirza said the institution would be purged of corrupt elements.

“To achieve this objective an Internal Accountability Cell (IAC) has already been established under supervision of a grade 19 officer. The IAC will investigate all the cases of corruption and take strict action against those who will be found involved in dirty activities like corruption,” he added.

“The IAC has been set up to take the corrupt elements to task and everyone alleged “corrupt” will be investigated by the IAC,” Mirza said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2013.