FIA arrests two officials for issuing Pakistani passports to foreign nationals

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Counter-Terrorism Wing, Karachi has arrested a superintendent and former assistant director of Immigration and Passport for issuing Pakistani passports to foreign nationals.

The arrested officials include Farid Shah, superintendent in the Passport Office, Karachi and Nusrat Ali, former assistant director in the Passport Office. According to FIA’s official documents, accused Farid Shah issued passports to 63 foreigners, mostly Afghan nationals, while accused Nusrat Ali issued Pakistani passports to a total of 231 Afghan citizens. A first information report (FIR) 5/2024 was registered against them and the court granted their four days physical remand to the FIA authorities. As per the contents of the FIR, the Embassy of Afghanistan in Saudi Arabia recently forwarded a total of 12,090 surrendered Pakistani ordinary passports to the Embassy of Pakistan in Riyadh.

These passports were handed over by the Saudi authorities, having been surrendered by Afghan nationals, and upon the scrutiny of these passports, it was discovered that a significant number of 7,613 passports were fraudulently obtained by foreign nationals who managed to secure Pakistani passports in connivance with the officials of Immigration and Passport, resulting in subsequent harm to Pakistan’s global reputation. It also resulted in the unauthorised circumvention, interference, entry, and access to the Immigration and Passport Office’s critical information infrastructure, coupled with a breach of the Immigration and Passport Policy.

The FIR further said that the Immigration and Passport (IMPASS) officially filed complaints against the said officers and officials and this led to the commencement of an inquiry against them on October 3, 2023. During the course of the inquiry proceedings, it was revealed that Syed Ali Nusrat, resident of Karachi and former assistant director of IMPASS and then in-charge of regional Passport Office, Karachi Government, and Senior Citizen Counter was involved in the approval of 231 passports for foreign nationals, subsequently facilitating the processing and issuance of passports with the dishonest intention for illegal gain and in violation of passport policy issued by the IMPASS.

The FIR concluded that this illicit conduct was carried out in collaboration with accompanying staff, beneficiaries non-national passport holders, overseas employment promoters (OEPs), and others, and this act of accused persons prima-facie constitute offenses punishable under section 6, 8, 10 PECA 2016 read with 6, 13 (2) Passport Act 1974 read with 17, 18, 22 Emigration Ordinance, 1979 read with 5 (2) PCA 1947 read with 14 Foreigners Act, 1946 read with 419, 420, 468, 471, 409, 34, 109 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).