ISLAMABAD: The disclosure of illegal release of three prisoners from a Karachi prison in 2010 has shaken up the interior ministry and prompted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to arrest the central character of the scam — an official of the ministry.

Informed sources told Dawn that the prisoners had separately been convicted in the United Kingdom — two of them of murder and the third of a drugs-related crime. They were supposed to serve part of their sentences in Pakistan under an agreement with the UK.

The three were from Punjab and should have been kept in a prison in that province. But a section officer of the interior ministry, Ali Mohammad — now under arrest — managed to send them to the Karachi Central Jail.

In his communication with the prison authorities, he distorted facts about the length of sentences they had served in the UK and asked them to calculate remission thus paving way for their instant release. The Director of FIA’s Islamabad zone, Inam Ghani, said the remission was not applicable in these cases, but was illegally calculated and granted to the prisoners.

When the UK High Commission in Islamabad expressed a desire to see the prisoners, a drama was staged in collusion with a sub-inspector of Punjab police. He booked the three in a case showing that liquor had been recovered from their possession.

Ali Mohammad arranged a meeting of the HC’s representatives with the prisoners in a Punjab prison, giving the impression that they were completing their sentences there. After satisfying the British officials, the FIR registered against the three was quashed.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has directed the FIA to also investigate some officials of the Karachi prison and his ministry suspected of having played a role in the episode. The FIA is currently interrogating four officials of the jail.