and Chairman of Ansar Burney Trust International, Ansar Burney said he alarmed the FIA DG on a number of occasions about the increasing ratio of smuggling of young girls to the Middle East for prostitution and forced labour. He said majority of these young girls, used for prostitution, belonged to rural areas, adding, “Even young girls who go for Umra are used for these purposes”.
Praising the efforts of the Lahore FIA, Ansar Burney said the FIA could check travel documents of young girls including their job documents at airports to check prostitution. He added FIA should strictly check the agents of those girls who sent them to the ME on ‘work’ visa. Coordination at international level involving from visa issuance and purposes of travel was also needed in controlling smuggling of girls, he maintained.
It is pertinent to mention here that a team of the Lahore FIA conducted a raid at a two-room flat near Shah Noor Studios and arrested four alleged human smugglers Ali Pathan, Liaquat Ali, Shahbaz Ali Khan and Husnain Basharat, who smuggled over 100 young girls to the ME for club dance, prostitution and night functions.
During the raid, the FIA team recovered 31 passports of young girls, 57 video cassettes, 180 photographs, albums, DVDs, fake medial certificates, computers, 47 stamp papers, etc, from the flat. The FIA registered FIR 296/15 under sections including 17/18/22/Emigration Ordinance (EO) 1979, 6PA, 1974, 3/4 Human Trafficking Ordinance (HTO) 2002 and PPC 34 against the accused.
It is worth mentioning that Section 3 of the HTO, 2002, which was made part of the FIR, deals with the punishment for those human traffickers who knowingly purchase, sell, harbour, transport, provide, detain or obtain a child or a woman through coercion, kidnapping or abduction, or by giving or receiving any benefit for trafficking him or her into or out of Pakistan or with intention thereof, for the purpose of exploitative entertainment by any person and have received or expect to receive some benefit in lieu thereof shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.
During the investigations Ali Pathan and Liaqat Ali revealed that they smuggled over 100 and 25 young girls to Gulf States, respectively during the past few years. They said majority of those girls was smuggled from the Allama Iqbal Airport, Lahore.
The FIA investigators recovered 22 air-tickets, 44 passports, 29 visas and 25 affidavits and a hard disk of a computer from the accused.
All the tickets, they said, were destined from Lahore to Gulf States. The investigators also revealed that the alleged human smugglers had no employment protector for sending the young girls to Dubai on ‘work’ visas. According to them, they raided other places to arrest the co-accused and an alleged client, Sajid Mughal, a hotel owner in Dubai.
A month ago FIA officials had arrested an alleged human smuggler, Asif Ali, along with two young girls Nagina and Sheena from the Lahore Airport when they were proceeding to Dubai.
After the arrest of Pathan, Liaqat Ali and Asif Ali from Lahore within a one month time, it has become evident that majority of young girls were being smuggled to ME from the Lahore Airport.
It is also important to note that two young girls named Hina Basharat, 25, and Sunaina Basharat, real sisters, who were arrested along with Pathan had visited the Gulf States thrice in the past few months, all from Lahore Airport. (The names of the girls have been changed to hide their identity).