The Senate Standing Committee on Interior has asked the government to present a comprehensive report on the theft several hundred passports from Pakistan embassies in Spain and Saudi Arabia.
"It is alarming that a large number of Pakistani passports were stolen from Pakistan missions as misuse of these documents damage the country's image", said Chairman, of Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator Talha Mehmood here on Tuesday.
Briefing newsmen about the deliberations of the Senate body during its visit to Islamabad international airport, he said that human trafficking was defaming Pakistan in world, while innocent people, who sold their property and valuables to get good job abroad were being deprived of money and detained as terrorists in other countries.
He said that innocent people were paying about Rs 1.5 million to traffickers to take them abroad, but were landing in European jails due to fake documents and dubbed as terrorists.
More than 90 per cent people illegally smuggled abroad belonged to Gujranwala division, but the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) failed to arrest notorious human smugglers like Amra and Raja Ghaffar, wanted in dozens of cases, he said.
"Besides human smugglers, the FIA is responsible for encouraging human trafficking and fleecing innocent people by misguiding them, they are languishing in foreign jails as terrorists", he said, and added: "We want across the board accountability on this issue and no one will be spared".
Giving figures of actions taken against human traffickers, Talha Mehmood said that during 2006, no less than 211 human traffickers were arrested and cases were registered against 128, in 2007, the FIA arrested 273 human traffickers and cases registered against 170, while in first five months of current year, 68 human smugglers were arrested and cases were registered against 36.
Talking on number of persons off-loaded for travelling on fake documents, he said 1,006 people were off-loaded in 2005, in 2006 the number those off-loaded was 1,462 and 1,526 persons were off-loaded in 2007. He said that 1,125 persons were given punishment in 2005; 1,448 in 2006 and 5,022 in 2007.
A sub-committee was constituted on human smuggling with main focus on to control this menace and appropriate measures be taken in most affected areas of Gujranwala division, including Gujrat, Sialkot, Hafizabad and Wazirabad districts.
He said that this region had no FIA court, or sub-jail to lodge the arrested persons. "We have asked the government to set up FIA court and sub-jail in these areas, besides in Taftan, Gwadar, Chaman and Karachi as these were main routes of trafficking. "We have asked the Additional Director, FIA, Gujranwala region, to give complete briefing to the Senate body", he added.
"Personnel Identification Secure and Comparison Evaluation System (PISCES) is a system hardly to be dodged by smugglers and during our visit to Islamabad, we were briefed about it," Talha Mehmood said, adding that the FIA authorities were asked to further upgrade this system.
He said that human traffickers were using different routes, but 80 per cent people were being smuggled via Iran. "We have decided to meet in Quetta and get the first hand information on this issue", he added.
To a question, he said that Pakistan was ready to work with Iran to eradicate the human trafficking. "We are working on local level to overcome this problem and hope we will chase it. But if we think to get support from Iran we will contact them", he added.
The Senate body has also called for addressing the deficiency of infrastructure and officials in border areas such as Taftan and Chaman and other exist points. "We have also recommended to the government to streamline the salary and duty structure of the FIA officials, besides making them accountable."
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