ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has deported 4,000 beggars from Saudi Arabia during the last three years, FIA Director General (DG) Ahmad Ishaque Jehangir revealed this during a meeting of a parliamentary body on Tuesday.

Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior which met with MNA Raja Khurram Shahbaz Nawaz in the chair, the FIA DG said that the agency has so far offloaded 400 alleged beggars from Saudi Arabia-bound flights from different international airports.

He also briefed the committee on human smuggling networks recently uncovered by the FIA.

The committee was informed that several Overseas Employment Promoters (OEPs) from Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi were implicated in this crime, he said, adding that the investigation is ongoing, and notices have been served to the implicated OEPs.

He said that since it is a cross-border crime, additional information is required from offices in Romania, and the inquiry is expected to take six to seven months to conclude.

Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Munir Afsar, while briefing the meeting, said that the authority cannot increase the number of NADRA offices as with the increase in the number of NADRA offices, the fee of Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) will further increase.

He said that there are 21 tehsils in the country that do not have NADRA offices. These are tehsils where the government had made announcements but has not done delimitation there, he said, adding that most of these tehsils are located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The NADRA chairman said that when people do not make new CNICs then NADRA funds will not be generated.

To a question, he said that the government appoints NADRA chairman.

One of the big cyber breaches had happened in NADRA and the data of 2.7 million Pakistanis had been leaked, he said, adding that following the cyber breach, the services of a grade 19 officer and another five officers had been terminated.

MNA Tariq Fazal Chaudhary asked what action has been taken by the authority regarding fake CNICs. Many Afghan nationals have made CNICs, he said.

The NADRA chairman said that the authority has blocked 150,000 CNICs.

He also briefed the committee regarding appointments in grade 17 and above, resignations, terminations, total number of employees, deputation, revenue generation, and audits over the last five years.

The committee was informed that NADRA’s total workforce stands at 20,577, and 202 officers hired and 60 officers dismissed or removed from service during last five years.

The additional inspector general (AIG) and commandant of Punjab Police briefed the committee on rape cases involving minors over the past five years, existing protocols from reporting to prosecution, and the status of prosecuted and pending cases.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024