LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered cases against 10 of its own officials for allegedly helping 41 Afghan nationals travel to Saudi Arabia using forged Pakistani passports.
The probe was initiated after the FIA received information that an Afghan national named Agha Khan had flown from Sialkot Airport to Saudi Arabia in May 2023 on a Pakistani passport and had not returned.
The inquiry was broadened after it emerged that at least 41 Afghan nationals had flown to Saudi Arabia via Sialkot Airport around the same time, allegedly with the assistance of FIA officials stationed there.
The FIA requested the records of these 41 passengers from the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), which confirmed that they were not registered. Similarly, the Director General of Immigration and Passports reported that his office also did not have their details.
Although the passengers’ passports contained scanned protector registration numbers at the immigration desk, these were later verified to be fake.
The inquiry identified 10 FIA officials allegedly involved in facilitating the departures: Sub-Inspectors Asad Zameer, Suleman Liaquat Virk, and Imran Shaukat Virk; ASI Saqib Ameer; and Head Constables Muhammad Shahzad, Shahzada Latif, Fayaz Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees, Muhammad Nawaz, and Haider Ali.
All 41 Afghan nationals were also found responsible for using fraudulent documents to travel abroad.
However, the inquiry stated that the role of the FIA’s supervisory officer would be determined at a later stage.
An official familiar with the investigation expressed concern that the supervisory officer appeared to be let off the hook. “It’s hard to believe that no junior staff would allow such travelers to leave the country without their boss’s approval,” the official told Dawn. “If bribes were involved, the junior staff couldn’t act alone.”
He added, “A deputy director has a supervisory role, and human smuggling cannot happen without his collusion. It seems the inquiry has absolved him because he’s a senior officer, leaving the junior staff to take the fall.”
The FIA also filed cases against the 41 Afghan nationals and six travel agents—Mikael Bangia, Khalid Khan, Muhammad Daanish, Aslam Gulfam, Salah Shah, and Zahoor Khan.
Those involved face charges under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, the Emigration Ordinance, 1979, the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Passport Act, 1974, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.
