March 01, 2007	Thursday	Safar 11, 1428

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LAHORE, Feb 28: The Federal Investigation Agency has failed to take legal action against the woman MNA who is allegedly involved in human smuggling.

Sources in the agency informed Dawn on Wednesday that the MNA had arranged the travel of five boys to Spain in August last year. She had moved to Barcelona along with the boys showing them as her sons.

On suspicion, they said, the immigration officials checked their documents which were found genuine. However, they asked her to submit a written statement to the agency regarding her relationship with the boys and purpose of the visit.

In her statement, she mentioned that the boys were her children and she was going along with them to spend vacation. They said the MNA belonged to Karachi and was currently living in Islamabad, but surprisingly she chose Lahore for departure with scheduled return in Islamabad. “But she returned alone in Karachi,” they added.

Sources said the MNA had, in fact, three daughters and a son and the FIA neither bothered to verify this fact nor did they check whether the boys had returned or not. “It is strange why the FIA is reluctant to initiate probe despite having evidence against the MNA,” they wondered.

Last year, a ruling party MNA and the district naib nazim of Mandi Bahauddin had allegedly charged money from 10 people for arranging their travel to Kuwait on a visit visa. During interrogation, these people had told the FIA that each of them had paid up to Rs155,000 to them (naib nazim and MNA) for arranging their travel and they were promised that they would be provided employment there.

Sources said no action had so far been taken against the MNA and the naib nazim despite the request of the agency to the government.

“This is called organised human smuggling and such influential people easily get away with punishment,” a senior officer observed.

According to some Norwegian papers, a state minister of Pakistan belonging to the minorities is also alleged to have arranged the travel of over two dozen people to Norway after charging them handsomely.

An FIA official told Dawn that the agency had received no complaint against the state minister in question. He confirmed that his name was placed on the Exit Control List (ECL) a few months ago.

Answering a question, he said: “The interior ministry does not give reason for placing a name on the ECL.”

FIA Director-General Tariq Pervaiz was not available for comments.