LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has booked 10 of its own officials for allegedly facilitating 41 Afghan nationals to travel to Saudi Arabia using forged Pakistani passports.

The investigation was launched after the FIA received a report that an Afghan national, Agha Khan, had departed from Sialkot Airport to Saudi Arabia in May 2023 on a Pakistani passport and had not returned.

The inquiry team extended the scope of the probe following revelations that at least 41 Afghan nationals had left for Saudi Arabia via Sialkot Airport during the same period, allegedly with the connivance of FIA personnel posted there.

The FIA also sought the record of the 41 passengers in question from the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), which said they were not registered with it.

The Director General of Immigration and Passports also confirmed that his office also did not have their record.

Though their passports bore scanned protector registration numbers at the immigration counter, the numbers were later confirmed to be fake.

The inquiry identified 10 FIA officials allegedly involved in facilitating the travel: Sub-Inspectors Asad Zameer, Suleman Liaquat Virk and Imran Shaukat Virk; ASI Saqib Ameer; and Head Constables Muhammad Shahzad, Shahzada Latif, Fayaz Ahmad, Muhammad Idrees, Muhammad Nawaz and Haider Ali.

All 41 Afghan nationals were also found culpable for travelling abroad on fraudulent documents.

However, the inquiry said that the role of the FIA’s supervisory officer in this matter will be determined later.

“How come the inquiry team could absolve the supervisory officer(s) in this matter as no junior staff could allow any suspected traveller to leave the country without the approval of their boss,” an official privy to the development told Dawn. “And in case of obliging the suspected travellers after receiving a bribe, the subordinate staff could not do it in isolation.”

“A deputy director has a supervisory role, and human smuggling is not possible without his nexus with the junior staff. The inquiry team seems to have given a clean chit to him, being a senior officer, and made junior staff a scapegoat,” he said.

The FIA also booked the 41 Afghans and six travel agents, including Mikael Bangia, Khalid Khan, Muhammad Daanish, Aslam Gulfam, Salah Shah and Zahoor Khan.

All those involved have been booked under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, the Emigration Ordinance, 1979, the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Passport Act, 1974, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025