HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court Hyderabad circuit has issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General to call upon an FIA investigation officer of Hyderabad and seek his explanation for deliberate violation of the court’s order.

Comprising Justice Adnanul Karim Memon and Justice Riazat Ali Sahar, the bench passed the order the other day on a petition filed by Altaf Ahmed, a BS-18 officer of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), through Barrister Jawad Ahmed Qureshi.

According to the petitioner, he was posted in the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) against a higher post of BS-19. He ensured full payment of BISP funds to beneficiaries without illegal deduction, which was deducted by retailers from Rs1,000 to Rs4000 from each payment for 1.2m beneficiaries.

He got hundreds of FIRs registered against retailers and unearthed several cases of BISP funds being withdrawn from deceased beneficiaries through fake thumb impressions and forwarded it to the FIA Cyber Crime. He detected discrepancies and corrupt practices by then accounts officer, who was found guilty by inquiry committee of the BISP and repatriated to parent department.

He said he was asked by high officials to issue no dues certificate to the accounts officer but the petitioner declined and then he himself was repatriated to the parent department on false allegations without any show-cause notice or evidence on June 29, 2021, containing stigmatic remarks.

He challenged his repatriation and Nov 23, 2021 order was passed by the court. The bench reproduced Nov 23, 2021 order whereby the petition was disposed.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that after passing of the Nov 23 order, the BISP head office issued revised notification on Dec 22, 2021, removing/expunging stigma contained in the earlier reputation order of the petitioner.

But after about a year on Dec 9, 2022, the FIA Crime Circle Hyderabad while acting on the instructions of BISP Sindh Region DG — who according to the petitioner benefited from the illegal earlier deductions — registered FIR against his client in complete disregard of the court’s order.

He said that in such circumstances, the petitioner filed a contempt plea and on Dec 14, 2022 while issuing notice to the IO for his appearance as the court restrained him from taking coercive action against the petitioner in respect of said FIR.

But the IO (sub inspector Masroor Baloch), failed to appear before the court rather he again in violation of clear and specific directives submitted a charge sheet in the said crime on Aug 16,2023.

The counsel contended that not only this but the IO wrote letter to FIA’s Anti Money Launder (AML) Circle Sukkur to initiate inquiry against the petitioner under the AML Act, hence an enquiry No. 19/2024 under Section 24(1) of AML Act 2010 was initiated against the petitioner and he was issued call up notices which were impugned by the petitioner through a separate petition this year. He argued that the aforesaid actions on the part of investigating officer were based on mala fides and indicated that he had no regard for the court’s orders.

The court said that according to the record in addition to issuance of notices for personal appearance of the IO, directives were issued no coercive action shall be against the petitioner in respect of the said FIR, yet the IO failed to appear before the court rather in disregard of the directives of the court and submitted a charge sheet against the petitioner. Besides, another enquiry under AML Act was initiated against him and he was issued a notice.

The court issued notice to the FIA DG to call upon IO Masroor Baloch of the FIA Hyderabad and seek his explanation as to why action shall not be taken against him for deliberate violation of court’s order.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025