Assets probe ordered gainst 20 FIA officials

The outgoing Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Muhammad Amlesh, has ordered assets enquiries against 20 accused FIA officials, The News has learnt.

According to FIA sources, the DG FIA ordered assets probe against the following 20 FIA officials: Waqar Haider, PSP, posted as Director Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) at FIA Headquarter Islamabad, Nasrullah Gondal , Deputy Director, Tahir Jan Durrani, Assistant Director, Alam Zeb, Assistant Director, Munawar Iqbal Ranjha, Assistant Director, Sohraab Maalik, Assistant Director, Rizwan Aslam, Assistant Director, Hamood ur Rehman Mengal, Assistant Director, Kausar Mehmood, Inspector, Muhammad Afzal Khan, Inspector, Khalid Salahuddin, Inspector, Adnan Ahmed Jan, Inspector Haroon Zaman deployed at Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) of FIA Punjab, Inspector Asad Iftikhar Awan, deployed at Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) of FIA Punjab, Inspector Azhar Riaz , deployed at Cyber Crime Wing (NR3C) of FIA Lahore, Sub-Inspector Ghulam Murtaza of FIA Punjab, Sub-Inspector, Muhammad Jamshed Khan, Sub-Inspector, Zubair Kamal, ASI and Head Constable Gulzar Ahmed and Constable Taimoor Siddiqui of FIA Punjab.

It may be relevant to mention here that a list of 62 accused corrupt FIA officers/officials was emerged in 2013 soon after Ch Nisar Ali Khan assumed charge of the interior ministry. Afterwards, the ministry formed another committee in late 2016 to verify those officials mentioned in the list of 2013 and sought its recommendations about the accused officials. The committee, having the representation from the intelligence agencies completed its task in April 2017 and submitted its report to the ministry.

 In its report, available with The News, the committee has categorized all the 62 accused officials among three categories including Black, Grey and White.

These 20 officials against assets enquiries have been initiated are mentioned in the Black Category. The committee has proposed that assets enquiries should be initiated against all the accused FIA officials mentioned in the Black Category. The committee further proposed that these FIA officials shouldn’t be posted on operational duties till the finalization of inquiry but, contrary to the recommendations; no official has been removed from their post even after over a month has passed since the report submitted to the Interior Ministry.

Additional Director Immigration FIA Lahore Imran Ahmer has been appointed as enquiry officer for Inspector Haroon, Inspector Asad and Inspector Azhar whereas Acting Deputy Director Corporate Crime Circle (CCC) Jameel Ahmed Khan Mayo has been appointed as enquiry officers of SI Murtaza and Constable Taimorr respectively. Additional Director General Anti-Corruption Wing will supervise/monitor these enquiry proceedings, the DG directed. The names of inquiry officers for the remaining officials are not known so far.

The Committee has recommended four FIA officials included in the Grey Category including Inspector Azmat, Inspector Fakhar, Inspector Irshad and ASI Tanveer to place them under the watch list for a period of two years. The supervisory officer shall issue a special annual report on the performance and integrity of the officials for the next two years, the committee recommended.

Similarly, the committee has proposed to drop cases against 12 officers mentioned in the White Category. They include: Deputy Director Sajid, Assistant Director Ghulam Abbas, Inspector Ahmed, Inspector Abdul Qayyum, Technical Assistant Sana, ASI Ijaz, Head Constable Allah Bakhsh, Head Constable Hamayun, Head Constable Sajid, Constable Shahbaz, Constable Nasir and Constable Nayyar.

Furthermore, the committee has also dropped cases/probe against 23 FIA officers/officials on the ground that they either stand repatriated or retired from FIA. They are Among those included: Additional Director Amir, Additional Director Shahid, another Assistant Director Shahid, Assistant Director Asas, Assistant Director Asim, Assistant Director Harron, Assistant Director Tahir, Assistant Director Sohail, Inspector Mansoor, Inspector Aamir, Inspector Ilyas, Inspector Zahid, Inspector Arshad, Inspector Zia, Inspector Shaukat, Inspector Zulfiqar, Inspector Samiullah, Inspector Babar, Pervez, Inspector Fakir, Sub-Inspector AKram, ASI Amanullah and Constable Jehan.

Spokesman of the interior ministry Sarfraz Ahmed was not available for comments despite repeated attempts made at his cell phone through calls and text messages on Monday and Tuesday.

This correspondent tried to contact DG Muhammad Amlesh through calls and text messages over the last week but he didn’t respond.

On the other hand, talking to The News on Tuesday, Talking to The News, Director Waqar Haider said he had been facing enquiries for the last four years and was ready to face another. He said he would respond to the queries whenever he was summoned. “I am on ex-Pakistan leave and don’t know what is going on. I will resume my official duties on June 1,” he added. 

Inspector Afzal Niazi of SIU confirmed that an enquiry has been initiated against him. He, however, said he hasn’t received any notice or notification from authorities concerned yet. To a question, he said he would respond to the allegations whenever he was summoned by the enquiry officer.