and seized money from violators of traffic rules and tax evaders.
“The FIA is blessed with competent and upright senior officers but the ground situation sees corrupt and dishonest elements, who are carrying out their nefarious activites freely,” he said.
“Mega corruption scams in EOBI, PSO, PIA, CDA, and New Islamabad Airport are a question mark on the FIA’s performance,” he said. The FIA should be looked as pride of the country but its poor performance had turned it into a joke, he said. The minister said that there were no instances that FIA had caught any big fish but it took credit by putting down low-key dacoits and corrupt individuals, he said.
The minister said till he was in the office, he would not tolerate any wrongdoing. “Neither will I do any wrongdoing nor will I allow anyone to do it.”
The way the affairs of FIA and Interior Ministry continued in the past will not be tolerated from now onwards, the interior minister said. He said prisoners exchange agreements were reported in the past denoting the process how with the connivance of officials of FIA and other departments, foreigners convicted in severe crimes in foreign countries, proved themselves to be Pakistani citizens through forged documents and were freed from Pakistani jails.
Talking about 64 officials deputed in FIA on deputations and engaged in illegal activities, the minister said all these corrupt officials will not be allowed to sit in their offices and they can get their salaries by sitting at home.
A senior FIA official said on the occasion that approximately 70 percent cases filed with the FIA were related to visa/passports, cheating and embezzlement.The meeting was briefed on the status of Ebrahim Koko Malick, a national of Burma brought to Pakistan on forged documents. In the case of New Benazir Bhutto International Airport Project, Lt Gen Shahid Niaz was convicted and investigations were also in process. The meeting was also briefed on cases relating to the CAA for embezzlement in the purchase of five 777-Boeing planes in which former defence minister Ahmad Mukhtar and Dr Waqar Masood were convicted.
Similarly, the meeting was also briefed on CDA’s Abu Dhabi Tower and PSO scams. An accounts officer of PSO was convicted for embezzling money in the sale of oil and was learnt to be the owner of many petrol pumps.