LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has filed a case against 10 of its officials for allegedly helping 41 Afghan nationals travel to Saudi Arabia using fake Pakistani passports.
A newspaper report stated that the investigation began after the FIA learned that an Afghan national, Agha Khan, traveled from Sialkot Airport to Saudi Arabia in May 2023 using a Pakistani passport and did not return.
The investigation team expanded its inquiry after discovering that 41 Afghan nationals had traveled to Saudi Arabia from Sialkot Airport during the same period, allegedly with the assistance of FIA staff stationed there.
As per the report, the FIA requested records of the 41 passengers from the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), which confirmed that these individuals were not registered in its database.
The Director General of Immigration and Passports also stated that his office had no records of these individuals.
Although the passports used by these travelers had scanned protector registration numbers at the immigration counter, those numbers were later found to be fake.
The investigation identified 10 FIA officials allegedly involved in enabling the travel: Sub-Inspectors Asad Zameer, Suleman Liaquat Virk, and Imran Shaukat Virk; Assistant Sub-Inspector Saqib Ameer; and Head Constables Muhammad Shahzad, Shahzada Latif, Fayaz Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees, Muhammad Nawaz, and Haider Ali.
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All 41 Afghan nationals were also found responsible for traveling abroad with fraudulent documents.
The investigation noted that the role of the FIA’s supervisory officer in this case would be determined later.
An official familiar with the matter told private newspaper, “How could the inquiry team clear the supervisory officer when junior staff cannot allow any traveler to leave the country without their supervisor’s approval? If the junior staff helped travelers after taking a bribe, they could not have acted alone.”
The official added, “A deputy director has a supervisory role, and human smuggling cannot happen without their involvement with junior staff. It seems the inquiry team cleared the senior officer and made the junior staff the scapegoat.”
The FIA also filed cases against the 41 Afghan nationals and six travel agents, named Mikael Bangia, Khalid Khan, Muhammad Daanish, Aslam Gulfam, Salah Shah, and Zahoor Khan.
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All individuals involved have been charged under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, the Emigration Ordinance of 1979, the Foreigners Act of 1946, the Passport Act of 1974, and the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947.
Earlier, the FIA Lahore Zone has arrested four suspects involved in human trafficking and visa fraud during raids in Lahore and Sheikhupura. According to an FIA spokesperson, the arrested men are Umair Rafiq, Muhammad Yousaf, Shahid Rasool, and Norez Sadiq.
They are accused of tricking people by offering fake overseas job opportunities and taking large amounts of money. Umair Rafiq is accused of collecting Rs. 10 million from citizens by promising immigration to Canada but later disappearing without helping them.
Muhammad Yousaf and Shahid Rasool are accused of giving a fake Canadian visit visa to a person and taking Rs. 4 million. Another suspect, Norez Sadiq, who worked as a traffic warden in Lahore, is accused of taking Rs. 1.1 million from people by falsely promising jobs abroad.
