LAHORE
Year 2016 brought huge criticism to FIA as all the opposition parties criticised it for doing nothing in the Panama case in which hundreds of Pakistanis, including the ruling elite, was named for establishing offshore companies.
The FIA director general submitted in the SC during the proceedings of the case that FIA had the powers to deal with corruption and corrupt practices of accused government servants but it had no powers to investigate holders of public office. In his written reply, the DG also conceded to the fact that through Foreign Exchange Act 1947, FIA could take action against those involved in sending money abroad illegally but in the subject case they had not received an application as yet.
The DG did not make it clear whether FIA acted only after receiving formal application in a particular case or it could act on its source reports, newspapers reports, etc.
The year 2016 also passed like the previous one but the probe into famous Asghar Khan case couldn’t be completed as former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen (retd) Aslam Beg got stay from the SC.
Last year, an FIA team succeeded in recording statement of a sitting Prime Minister but Gen Beg approached SC for reviewing in its earlier decision in which he was declared an accused for engineering rigging in the 1990s election.
The outgoing year also witnessed a battle of likes and dislikes within the organisation. FIA DG Muhammad Amlesh took over the charge in March 2016 with all powers but he was seemingly made ‘dysfunctional’ (toothless) when he tried to appoint men of his choice at the ‘right’ places in place of those occupying them during the previous administrations. Reportedly, he tried to replace around half a dozen directors of FIA but couldn’t succeed at the end.
After exchanging some words with the powerful interior minister within two months since assuming charge, Amlesh became a silent spectator and the minister started handling agency’s affairs directly with DG’s subordinates. The situation remained the same till December 31, 2016.
During the year 2016, the investigation into famous Dr Imran Farooq’s murder case couldn’t be completed by FIA’s Counter-Terrorism Wing (CTW) during the outgoing year in which MQM head Altaf Hussain was also named.
On the other hand, FIA Punjab, Lahore Zone, stood out in performing in the year 2016 like in the previous year. Its investigation officers and Director Dr Usman Anwar won the cash awards from the interior minister. This was the third consecutive year for Dr Usman of winning the best FIA officer award.
Among the top cases at FIA, Lahore, included an inquiry worth billions of rupees related to One Constitution Avenue Complex, which remained pending with the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the FIA for years, transferred to FIA, Lahore, in mid of the outgoing year. The FIA, Lahore, team has almost completed the probe and its final report would soon be shared with the minister. In the probe, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in connivance with a private company have allegedly incurred a loss to the tune of Rs 20 billion to the national exchequer in the sale of land for the construction of a hotel, One Constitution Avenue, Islamabad.
Similarly, delay in another SIU’s inquiry into petroleum levy in which irregularities worth millions of rupees have been allegedly committed by oil marketing companies (OMCs) in freight claims and payment of petroleum levy was transferred to FIA, Lahore.
Due to efforts of FIA, Lahore, approximately Rs 700 million were recovered from the accused parties but the investigation again were transferred back to SIU. During the last week of December, the minister referred back the inquiry to FIA, Lahore, for its completion in time.
In 2016, the FIA, Lahore, managed to arrest over 1,500 accused in different cases, including 650 proclaimed offenders (POs), majority of them belonging to human trafficking. FIA, Lahore, also gave special attention towards addressing the issue of capital flight from Pakistan through airports. Only at Lahore and Sialkot, FIA Punjab foiled bid of currency smuggling worth Rs 130 million and 30 million respectively during the year 2016.
In November of 2015, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had ordered a re-inquiry into famous Khanani and Kalia case when Altaf Khanani was arrested in the United States.
It may be important to mention here that Javed Khanani and Munaf Kalia were arrested by the FIA, Lahore, in 2008 on charges of running a parallel money transfer system being operated by their company for purposes of transferring money out of the country through alleged illegal hundi/hawala channels. Their company reportedly carried out 40pc of all money exchange transactions in the country at the time. Javed died in early December, 2016, after falling from a building in Karachi.
Likewise, FIA Punjab also started probing matters related to alleged irregularities in construction works of Pakistan Cricket Board in 2016.
Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016, was adopted in 2016 by the parliament. The PECA has been designed to fight cyber crimes and cyber terrorism. Though the subject law has been passed but even after the passage of around four months, some critical issues haven’t been addressed as yet. Among the top issues faced by the cyber crime authorities included recruitment of new staff as crimes related to cyber wings have increased seven times during the last five years or so.
In 2011, cyber crime wing received 786 applications, 917 in 2012, 1312 in 2013, 1782 in 2014, 4,361 in 2015 and around 7,000 in 2016. Similarly, under PECA, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) couldn’t be established in 2016. The CERT was to respond any threat or attack on any critical infrastructure information systems or critical infrastructure data, or widespread attack on information systems in Pakistan.
At the end, a new FIA zone which was to be named as Multan Zone to address miseries of local people of South Punjab couldn’t be established in 2016. The people of South Punjab have to travel long distance to reach Lahore to get their issues addressed.
Commenting on overall progress of FIA, a senior FIA official in the federal capital told The News that the Agency did reasonably well. Without going into details, the official said inquiries into some important cases had either been completed or were near competition. To a question, he said FIA Punjab stood out again in performance. He also noted that under National Action Plan (NAP), coordination among law enforcement agencies was increased in 2016. He shared that FIA provided important technical assistance under NAP to law enforcement agencies for the purpose of evaluation of suspected Madrassas, particularly in Punjab. He said a lot of progress had been made in the outgoing year regarding the digitalisation of FIA record and Case Management System (CMS).