LAHORE, July 22: The proposed merger of Federal Investigation Agency’s crime and economic crime wings with the National Accountability Bureau hangs in the balance, as FIA employees do not want to join the bureau for fear of hiccups in promotion and abolition of FIA police cadres.
As many as 40 FIA employees belong to the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) in BPS 18 to 22, including one director-general, three additional director-generals, 11 directors and 25 deputy directors. These officers reportedly want officials in BPS-17 and below transferred to the NAB.
Sources said that in case the PSP employees of FIA were sent to the NAB their chances of promotion would reduce, because the NAB was not a service group. Besides, the police service may lose its quota in the FIA after its employees join the NAB.
They said that bureaucracy was too strong to let the PSP merge with NAB. PSP employees in FIA’s crime and economic crime wings were anxiously waiting for the establishment of anti-terrorist and cyber-crime wings so that they could get themselves adjusted on the new wings, the sources added.
The federal cabinet had decided to merge the FIA crime and economic wings with NAB last year. A committee was constituted under the supervision of interior ministry to work out the modalities but it failed to deliver the goods.
The FIA came into being in 1975 to deal with human-trafficking, bank frauds, tax evasion, counterfeit currency and drug-smuggling. Its role would be reduced after the merger to dealing with immigration-related crimes in which its performance was not satisfactory as hundreds of people, including women and children, slipped away to other countries on invalid documents every year.
Currently, 70 of 177 FIA staffers are already working for the NAB and more or less the same number is expected to become part of the NAB if the merger materializes.
An FIA official told this reporter on Tuesday that cases in which the recovery amount was more than Rs5 million would be handed over to the NAB.
The FIA is governed by some 20 ordinances and acts, which include the Immigration Ordinance 1979, Passport Act 1974, Customs Act 1969, National Registration Act 1973, Official Secret Act 1923, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947, Foreign Exchange Repatriation Act 1972, Foreign Assets Declaration Act 1972, Banking Company Ordinance 1962, Foreigners Act 1944, Explosive Substance Act 1908, West Pakistan Arms Ordinance 1965, High Treason Act 1973, Prevention of Anti-National Activities Act 1947, Import-Export Act 1950, Drugs Act 1976 and Exit Control Act 1981. The powers under Prohibition of Corruption Act 1947 and Banking Nationalization Act 1974 have been transferred to the NAB.
