PESHAWAR, Jan 31: The immigration cell of the Federal Investigation Agency off-loaded 7,410 passengers from different international airports in the country during the past two years.
The immigration officials, however, sent only 1,849 passengers to the passport circle of the FIA in their respective regions for inquiry or registration of cases against the off- loaded passengers, the official record shows.
The immigration authorities avoided going to court, apparently because of fear that during the litigation officials' involvement in human trafficking might be exposed, the sources said.
Sometime the immigration staff at airports off-load genuine passengers on suspicions, the sources alleged. According to the FIA rules, the immigration authorities should sent all the cases of off-loaded persons to the passport circle for initiation of inquiries against them.
Thirty days were required to complete inquiry against the accused, also included off-loaded persons, by the enquiry officer of the passport circle, while 60 days are given to the enquiry officer in case an FIR is registered against the accused. But it is observed that in almost all the cases, the enquiry officers take more than the stipulated time. This lethargy also create problem with those off-loaded persons, who were not allowed to travel by the immigration authorities merely on the basis of suspicion.
In all these cases, the genuine visas of the passenger also get expired and even the travel agents did not return the amount having spent by the passengers on buying tickets.
According to the official figure, 176 persons were off-loaded by the immigration authorities in the year 2003 and the next year the total number of off-loaded persons went up to 1,411.
However, the authorities concerned sent only 164 cases to the passport circle for inquiry in 2003 and 144 in 2004. The Karachi immigration authorities off-loaded 924 persons in the year 2003 and sent the cases of mere 154 persons to the passport circle.
While the next year, 2,700 persons were off- loaded and the immigration cell sent the cases of 327 persons to the passport circle for further investigation or registration of cases.
A total number of 699 passengers were off-loaded from the Islamabad airport in 2003, while in 2004, the immigration authorities did not allow 965 passengers to travel abroad. However, the immigration staff sent 305 persons to the passport circle in 2003 and 514 in 2004 for initiation inquiry against them.
The immigration authorities off-loaded 146 persons in 2003 and sent all the cases to the passport circle for inquiry. And the next year, they off-loaded 125 passenger who were intending to travel abroad and sent 90 cases to the passport circle for further inquiry.
The Quetta immigration authorities off-loaded 110 passengers in the year 2003 and 101 next year. However, they let all these passenger to go home without referring their cases to the passport circle.
The Faisalabad immigration authorities did not stop anyone B = ? from travelling abroad in the year 2003 and off-loaded 36 passenger in the year 2004. But they also did not send any cases to the passport circle and let them allow to go home with investigations.
The immigration cell at Multan airport allowed all the passengers to travel abroad in the year 2003 and restrained only six from travelling and sent five cases to the passport circle for initiating inquiry against them.
The immigration authorities at Wahga stopped eight persons to cross the Pak-India border in 2003 and did not send their cases to the passport circle for further inquiry.
According to the official record of the FIA, the immigration authorities did not restrain any person to travel to India via Wahga in the year 2004. But the official record suggests that the immigration authorities sent 144 persons to the passport circle for initiating inquiry or registration of cases against them.
The FIA immigration staff at Wahga railway station stopped three persons from travelling by train to India. However, they let all these passengers to go home with out initiating inquiry against them.