LAHORE, Jan 17: A ruling party MNA and a District Naib Nazim have been accused of charging up to Rs155,000 each from 10 people for arranging their travel to Kuwait for visit visas.

Sources told Dawn on Monday that the immigration authorities had stopped 10 passengers belonging to Mandi Bahauddin from boarding a Kuwait-bound flight early this month on the suspicion of travelling on fake documents.

Their visas were however genuine but they could not satisfy the authorities regarding the purpose of their visit. On an assurance that they would be allowed to proceed provided they disclosed how did they obtain the visas, they revealed that each of them had paid up to 155,000 to the MNA and the District Niab Nazim for arranging their visit to Kuwait.

The passengers included Ghulam Murtaza, Qamar Abbas, Muhammad Mahmood, Shafqat Husain, Asif Hayat, Muhammad Shafique, Sagheer Ahmed, Tahir Masood and Tahir Khurshid.

They said the MNA and Niab Nazim had also promised to provide them with employment there. "They told us that you would either be absorbed in their company or they would adjust them in some other companies," the said.

They alleged that the MNA had set up a business in Kuwait and already arranged the travel of a number of people of the area to the Middle East. The immigration authorities have formally filed complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (passport cell) against the accused.

The passport cell has launched an inquiry but is yet to make any progress in this regard. It may, however, be mentioned that Kuwait stopped issuing visit, work and family visas to Pakistanis from Jan 9. However, the reason for the ban has not been ascertained as yet.

Requesting anonymity, an FIA officer told Dawn that the agency was helpless in such cases but could track down the people behind it. "We call it organized human smuggling.

Such influential people often used to arrange the travel of the poor to those countries where they have set up businesses and hire their services on cheaper rates", he said. He said that agent mafia in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Malkwal was very strong and the FIA was reluctant to take action against them.