ISLAMABAD, July 5: Officials of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) including its chief were booked by capital police for providing false evidence over dual nationality of a legislator to the apex court.

The case was registered with Secretariat police in response to a complaint lodged by additional Registrar Supreme Court, Mohammad Ali on the direction of the court.

The Director General FIA, Fayyaz Leghari, Deputy Director Technical, Mohammad Afzal along with other senior officers were nominated in the FIR (106) under sections of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 192 (fabricating false evidence), 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 197 (issuing or signing false certificates).

Police said the complainant stated that FIA DG, its deputy director along with other officials provided false evidence against MPA Tariq Mahmood Alloana over the issue of dual nationality. The officials misguided the court about the legislator, the police quoted the complainant.

A senior police officer when contacted told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the case was registered against the officials under the sections of the PPC, the SC had itself suggested.

All the offences in the case are bailable, non-cognizable and require warrants from the concerned magistrate for the arrest, the officer said. In reply to a question, the officer said that all the legal requirements of the case, including investigation and the arrest of the accused would be done in the light of the apex court’s directions.

The senior officer further said the investigation of the case would be supervised by capital’s Inspector General Police who will submit a weekly report to the SC Registrar. A joint investigation team would also be constituted, as one of the accused nominated in the FIR was senior Grade-21 officer. In this regard, a meeting will be held soon to make a strategy for addressing the issue including the investigation procedure to be adopted.

Earlier, on Wednesday a three member bench of SC headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry ordered its additional registrar to lodge a complaint against the DG FIA and other responsible officer for providing misleading information to the court showing that legislator – MPA from Mandi Bahauddin, Tariq Mahmood Alloana– as a US citizen.

The allegation was contended in the court by the lawmaker who denied it, outright. Over the denial, the apex court asked the FIA to produce evidence against the MNA to prove his dual nationality.

On Wednesday, DG FIA Fayyaz Laghari produced some documents in the apex court in which the name and father name of the dual national was the same as that of the MPA. However, the mother name was found to be different which annoyed the apex court.