Taking serious notice of the posting of “inefficient and inexperienced” officers at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Director General (DG) Chaudhry Anwar Virk has asked the interior secretary to order their return to the departments concerned. In a letter to the interior secretary, the FIA DG has drawn attention to 64 officers who had been posted on deputation in FIA in grade 17 to grade 20 following approval from the ministry. The DG FIA pointed out that under the 1975 FIA Act, officers from six groups namely Accounts, Customs, Income Tax, Engineering and Legal departments and their affiliated departments could be sent on deputation to the FIA; however he added that by violating all the norms, officers from other departments had been sent on deputation. He said that some of them were contract employees, and that in the presence of inexperienced officers, administrative problems were being created. He requested the interior secretary that the practice of sending inexperienced and inefficient officers to the FIA on deputation should be discouraged, and rules be followed in letter and spirit. The secretary has been asked that officers not fulfilling the required criteria be sent back to their parent departments. According to sources, a total of 400 persons have been posted in the FIA on deputation in different grades, and many of them have been absorbed and regularised in the agency, ranging from the rank of constable to additional director. These officers and officials were sent on deputation to the FIA from PIA, EOBI, Evacuee Property Trust Board, NADRA, KPK University, Sindh Assembly Secretariat, Information department, Customs, Income Tax, Sales Tax, National Bank of Pakistan and other offices.
