ISLAMABAD, March 26: Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi on Tuesday expressed annoyance over the poor investigation conducted by an inspector of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in an illegal arms licences case.

Mohammad Tariq, the FIA inspector, came under fire during the hearing of the bail plea of Firast Mumtaz, an arms dealer in G-10/4, who allegedly procured 187 illegal licences of prohibited bore weapons from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

According to the FIR registered by the FIA on January 31, 2013, Mumtaz managed the issuance of computerised licences of 187 ‘prohibited bore’ arms licences by Nadra on the basis of fake and forged documentations during revalidation of the licences in 2011-2012.

The FIR alleged that “during the course of investigation, it transpired that accused Firasat Mumtaz submitted fake/forged arms licence booklets to the Nadra office” for issuance of the licences.

It alleged that the illegal licences were sold to different people against Rs80,000 to Rs100,000.

The investigator, however, mentioned that Mumtaz managed the fake booklets for obtaining new computerised arms licences from Raja Rafiq, a former employee of the postal service, who died last year.

While scrutinising the bail plea, Justice Kasi expressed his annoyance and termed the investigation “poor”.

He also noticed that the investigation officer was not wearing proper uniform.

The court also dismissed the bail plea of the accused and directed the FIA to conduct proper investigation into the matter by an experienced officer.

An FIA official on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the investigation officer had cleared the Nadra officials who had issued the illegal licences and only implicated the arms dealer in the case.

He said the Nadra officials were bound to scrutinise the booklets before issuing the licences.

But in the case of Mumtaz, Nadra did not follow the rules and issued 187 licences on fake and forged booklets in the names of different people.

According to official, the interior ministry last year pointed out the irregularity and assigned its investigation to the FIA.