LAHORE, May 26: More than 25 officials, including eight assistant directors of the Federal Investigation Agency, are still working despite a stay granted to them by a court of law had been vacated about three years ago.

Official sources told Dawn on Thursday that these officials were no more on the FIA’s payroll and had been generating their income from ‘other resources’ for three years. The assistant directors include Sohail Arif, Akram Ali Shad, Imtiaz Ahmed, Dr Mushtaq Ahmed, Saifullah Jokia and Abdul Hamid Bhutto. The other officials included inspectors, sub-inspectors and assistant-sub inspectors.

These officials have been working in different wings of the agency, including immigration and passport wings, across the country. A senior officer was of the view that working without pay for such a long period could only be possible in a law enforcement agency. “Because they are no more FIA employees, their services are likened to any other outsiders who start investigating on the agency’s behalf”, he added.

He said the matter had been in the knowledge of the authorities concerned but no action was taken against them. It is said the employees in question were recruited in the FIA on ‘political basis’ in the Benazir Bhutto’s first term in office on ad hoc basis.

However, they were dismissed from service when Nawaz Sharif replaced Bhutto. The employees moved the court, which reportedly directed the agency to give them a two-year contract. The employees were directed by the court to appear in public service examination during the period.

The sources said that none of them appeared in the examination and the stay they had obtained from the court in this respect expired some three years ago. Some of these employees denied that they were generating income from other sources. “We perform our duties honestly and some of our colleagues provide us financial assistance,” they claimed. They said the FIA director-general had assured them that they would be ‘reinstated’ and at present they were working voluntarily.

DG Tariq Pervaiz, however, said that the agency had submitted their case to the interior ministry for a decision.