PESHAWAR, Jan 24: All regional offices of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have been ordered to complete inquiries against the accused by Feb 12.
FIA Director General Tariq Pervez issued a notification from Islamabad to all regional offices a few days ago telling them that action would be taken against inquiry officers failing to complete the inquiries by Feb 12.
Sources told Dawn that the director-general had warned that officers failing to meet the deadline would be asked to come to Islamabad and explain the reasons on Feb 16.
Thousands of inquiries were pending with immigration, passport and banking circles of the FIA throughout the country. Some of the inquiries were more than 10-year old which were yet to be completed.
As per FIA rules, the maximum time period for the completion of inquiries was three months. While the time for the completion of inquiries in registered cases was six months, sources said.
There was no punishment against the officials conducting inquiries, if they failed to complete them within three months, and there were no rewards for those who were efficient enough to complete the inquiries within time, the sources said.
They added that due to such reasons the officers did not show proper interests in inquiries. The sources said that the official notification did not mention whether fresh inquiries should also be completed by Feb 12 or should be dealt as per FIA rules, giving three months to the officers to complete them.
Giving another reason for the pending of inquiries, the sources said that the government had not revised the sanctioned posts since its establishment in 1974. Thus, the shortage of strength also caused the delay in completing the inquiries, they added.
They said that the passport circle in Peshawar was dealing with complaints throughout the NWFP. And it was very difficult for the officers to complete inquiries against a complaint sent from a far-flung area.
