ISLAMABAD, May 17: Most of the people sent illegally out of Pakistan belong to four cities of Punjab — Gujrat, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin and Sialkot, according to director general Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Pervez. He told Dawn human smugglers operating in these cities sent innocent people to various countries on forged documents.

He said that in 2005 FIA arrested 31 human smugglers from Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad. “The arrests were result of FIA’s enhanced efforts to eradicate the menace of human smuggling,” he added.

The FIA chief, however, was reluctant to respond to a question about a recent disclosure by the UK Ambassador to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant that the UK government had provided the government of Pakistan a list of its top bureaucrats and politicians who are involved in human smuggling. “As you know, I have recently taken over as director general of the FIA. The list might have been provided before my appointment,” he said.

Mr Pervez said in several cases human smugglers received heavy amounts from the people but did not fulfil promise of sending them abroad.

Answering to a query about alleged links between smugglers and the FIA officials, the DG FIA said in order to eliminate corrupt elements from the agency pending inquiries against the FIA officials were being disposed of.

“Disposal of 91 pending inquiries has led to imposition of penalties on 36 FIA officials and dismissal of another 26 from the service. However some of the cases are still pending,” he said.

Giving details of the recently established Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU) in the FIA headquarters, he said the main function of the unit was to protect victims of human trafficking, investigate cases, build a database of human traffickers and maintain liaison with foreign agencies. The ATU, recently inaugurated by Federal Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, has been established with the assistance of the United States.

He said the FIA had registered over 700 inquiries and 850 cases against human traffickers between January 2003 to February 2005. In 650 such cases the accused involved were arrested.

He said after completion of investigation, over 300 cases were submitted before courts for trial. He said so far trial courts have convicted 74 accused. Mr Pervez said the ATU was given the task to eradicate illegal immigration through authorised routes.

Responding to a question, he said, stern action had already been taken against some travel agents involved in the crime and their registration had been cancelled.