DG FIA’s job under threat for seeking Agency’s revamping

ISLAMABAD: Recently appointed DG FIA Muhammad Amlish’s recommendation to the government to overhaul the Agency to make it efficient, effective and vibrant has become a threat for his job.

Informed sources said that in a high level meeting on Monday, authorities hinted at getting replacement of the DG FIA. Sources told The News that after the authorities expressed anger over the reflection of Agency’s overhaul plan in this newspaper and termed it “ridiculous”. 

Amlish told the participants that in such a situation where the authorities have lost confidence in him, he would prefer to leave than sticking to the job. The DG FIA said that he would formally write to the government to relieve him from the job, offered only recently on the basis of officer’s reputation. 

He was told by the authorities that he does not need to send such a request, adding that the government will find his replacement. This is a typical case of the vulnerability of the highly politicised civilian bureaucracy where practically there is no protection of tenure even to such senior members of the bureaucracy. The case also reflects on the weakening of the government institution.

The DG FIA’s initiative of seeking organisation’s overhauling was not appreciated. Besides NAB and FBR, the FIA stands badly exposed in the wake of the PanamaLeaks disclosures and none of these organisations had the guts to probe the matter as it involves the names of powerful and influential. There are now growing demands to make these institutions independent so that as per their mandate they could proceed against anyone without any fear and favour.

It is said that if head of an organisation like FIA is removed prematurely by the government despite his good reputation, how could the bureaucracy work fearlessly. Although the government rules fix tenure for the government servants, such rules are openly violated by the governments as the rulers treat civil servants as their personal servants. 

To check such illegalities and in order to protect the civil servants from premature transfers, the Supreme Court has already passed clear orders barring the governments (both federal and provincial) from removing any government servant without completion of his tenure.

To the DG FIA’s bad luck, it was The News story published last week that became a source of authorities’ anger against him. The story did not have anything against the government but was based on the FIA’s request for approval of its overhauling plan so that the organisation could become effective.

The Director General Federal Investigation Agency has recently approached the federal government for approval of its “revamping plan” to overhaul the agency to make it efficient, effective and vibrant.

The DG FIA had admitted that the Agency’s performance had been dismal, which he insisted could only be improved by implementing a comprehensive revamping plan. This request from one of the leading anti-corruption state agencies had been received by the government at a time when in the backdrop of PanamaLeaks disclosures, demands for the institution building of NAB, FIA and FBR have amplified.

In its “Concept Paper on Revamping of FIA 5-Years Plan”, the DG FIA admitted that an overview of the FIA’s performance ever since its establishment in 1974 will show discouraging picture. Unfortunately, instead of discussing the merits of the proposal and using this opportunity to make the FIA a vibrant and independent organisation, the government took is as an “offence”.

In his note, the DG FIA had written the known truth about the FIA. “Poor quality of work with poor quality human resources, use of traditional methods of investigation, poor professionalism, and reluctance to acquire and keep up pace with new technologies have prevented the Agency from reaching its true and envisaged potential,” he wrote, while suggesting a medium-to-long term plan to revamp FIA in order to transform the agency into a vibrant, efficient and effective organisation.