LAYYAH: The Punjab home department has ordered closure of a private firm for its alleged involvement in ‘illegal activities’.

The firm, Arabian Recruitment Private, had set up an office in a local hotel allegedly for recruitment of construction workers for jobs in Gulf states.

According to the firm’s local accounts clerk, Mr Aurangzeb, the firm had been working in Layya since December 20, 2013 and a British national Peter James Middlebrook and a local Faheem Usman are its directors. They both work on behalf of Wanhaar Company, he says.

He say the firm had enlisted 100 people for these jobs and after screening through tests and interviews short-listed 32 of them for the jobs of masons, steel fixers and shuttering carpenters in various Gulf states.

Out of the 32 short-listed people, 17 were selected for training as steel fixers and the firm charged Rs3,100 from each of them as ‘training fee’. The remaining 15 were sent to Wanhaar Company for ‘processing of visas and other documents’ for which they were charged around Rs100,000.

So far three of the candidates -- Muhammad Iftikhar, Muhammad Qasim and Muhammad Shahbaz -- have received their visas.

He says that Mr Middlebrook and Mr Faheem Usman had conducted the interviews from January 6 to January 10, 2014.

Meanwhile, official sources said that Mr Middlebrook, being a British national, stayed at Layyah illegally as foreigners required an NOC by interior ministry for entering Dera Ghazi Khan division, which he did not have. He was provided security by the district police during his four-day stay here.

However, as the district coordination officer came to know about the recruitment firm and illegal stay of Mr Middlebrook, he ordered a probe into the matter appointing Assistant Commissioner Manzoor Ahmad as inquiry officer in the last week of February 2014. The inquiry report was submitted to the DCO in March.

Following the report, Punjab home department directed the DCO to take action against the illegal activities of the firm and ensure closure of its offices here. The department had also received reports about the illegal activities of the firm from intelligence agencies, the sources said.

Mr Faheem claimed that the firm is a registered company but it has yet to obtain overseas employment promoter license. “So, we work on the behalf of Wanhaar Company which is the license holder and is authorised to conduct training and tests through Protector of Immigration Pakistan,” he said.

“We have conducted tests of 200 people and 40 candidates were short listed. But only 20 people joined the training and provided their documents for visa processing,” he added.

“We have applied for the license and our application is still in process and receipt No 3288 has been allotted to us,” he said.

He also claimed that his company was registered with Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). He said the firm charged Rs75,000 for visa processing from every candidate.