KARACHI While a probe team of the National Assembly 'exonerated' Pakistan hockey secretary Asif Bajwa from human trafficking charges, chairman of Standing Committee on Sports says he would endeavour to refer the case to FIA.
Jamshaid Dasti, the chief of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Sports, said although the five-member sub-committee formed by him to investigate the charges had announced its decision, the case is not closed.
'I agree that the sub-committee has already disclosed its findings and absolved PHF secretary of all the charges. But it is me who has to decide what needs to be done. And I will now try my best that this case is referred to FIA for proper and official investigations into human smuggling charges,' Jamshaid told Dawn.com on Thursday.
The member of parliament said he would be discussing the issue with his colleagues at Oct 13 meeting and would strongly suggest that the federal agency be asked to probe into the matter to reach a conclusion.
Jamshaid Dasti made headlines for all the wrong reasons after controversial accusations over the performance of the Pakistan cricket team in the recently concluded Champions Trophy.
'We will be having a meeting on recent performance of Pakistan cricket team on Oct 13. There we will also discuss the possibility of handing over this human smuggling case to FIA because I really want to find out the facts and get rid of corrupt elements from sports. We may also ask Ministry of Sports help us in this cause,' said the legislator.
Jamshaid had summoned the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) hierarchy after former Pakistan goalkeeper Mansoor Ahmad accused PHF secretary of misusing his authority by applying for German visas for his wife and son and an unknown person Malik Ahtisham Zahid. Another Olympian Naveed Alam had charged Asif with smuggling people to Italy. Both were subsequently banned for life by PHF on July 17 for speaking against Asif.
But Jamshaid took notice and formed a sub-committee with Ramesh Lal as its head while Naseer Bhutta, Iqbal Mohammad Khan, Masood Perveen and Ahmad Yar were the members. Surprisingly, only two of the members - Ramesh and Naseer - announced the decision, exonerating Asif of all charges without proper investigation.
While Jamshaid wants the Ministry of Sports to help him root out corruption, ministry's role in the human smuggling case has been questionable. Just a day before the sub-committee announced its verdict on Sept 5, PHF president Qasim Zia and his secretary Asif had a meeting with Federal Sports Minister Aftab Shah Jilani at his office in Islamabad.
The PHF secretary had already been exonerated by Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) which works under the federal sports ministry. Qasim, a Pakistan People's Party leader, and Asif had earlier been accused by Jamshaid of using political pressure on him to close this case.
Jamshaid says he is now more serious in reaching out the facts since France has also ostensibly refused to grant visas through delaying tactics to the Pakistan team after reports of human smuggling surfaced in the press.
'It appears that France had refused to give visas to Pakistan hockey squad for Europe's tour after the scandal. In this scenario it has become more important to probe this matter to save us from embarrassment,' said the member of parliament.
He agreed that since Asif had also accused Mansoor of seeking US visas without PHF's approval to take part in a tournament, and Naveed of financial irregularities, one party must be guilty.
'It is indeed illogical how both the accused parties got exonerated. Obviously one of the parties must be guilty. That's why I have no option except FIA's involvement,' he said.
If the case goes to FIA, it would be a matter of few weeks if not days to catch the culprits since a list of people allegedly smuggled to Italy has been provided by Naveed to the National Assembly' sub-committee.
According to that list, Irfan Mahmood, Khan Abid, Mohammad Asad, Anwar Muhammad Ali, Sagheer Muhammad, Iftikhar Muhammad and Mujahid Hussain Shah had been taken by Asif to Italy in 2008. Naveed has also accused that Olympian Shafqat Malik's brother Arshad Muhammad may also have vanished in Italy through Asif's help.
However, most important clue could be Malik Ahtisham Zahid who had been mentioned by Asif as his child, PHF official and a journalist in different documents to the German consulate in Karachi and German hockey federation.
Besides his wife and son, Asif had applied for the German visas for three individuals for the participation in Hamburg Masters in 2008. Two of them were genuine reporters but Ahtisham's identity as a journalist could not be established.
