The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), under its special campaign, has registered a total of 368 cases of human trafficking in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) during the last three years.
Special campaign against human traffickers was launched as per the directions of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while the ‘Red Book’ of human traffickers was also prepared and circulated to all concerned.
A data issued by the Interior Division regarding registration of total cases in KP on Monday revealed that during the period, there were 126 travel agencies and 208 travel agents were involved, while the number of arrested travel agents was 176 and the number of registered cases against accused was 157. The number of convictions during the last three years was 51.
Meanwhile, official sources while defining the steps taken to improve the overall performance of the agency said, FIA’s strategic framework on human trafficking and migrant smuggling has been developed and is under finalisation.
The immigration-related laws of FIA are being extended to Torkham border crossing point in order to establish the writ of the agency to curb illegal trafficking and human smuggling.
The sources said FIA (APT) rules, framed in 1975 were outdated and inconsistent with contemporary legal requirements in terms of agency’s administrative and functional domains. These rules have been amended and re-framed in 2014, in line with all pressing requirements.
FIA (Inquiries and Investigations) rules of 2002 are also being examined and re-visited to ensure transparency, merit and fairness in process of investigation by FIA officers, while strict monitoring and vigilance on performance and conduct of FIA officers and officials has been enforced through establishment of vigilance units, performance evaluation committees and snap checking committees.
The sources said regular monitoring of progress of the agency on high profile cases is being done by Ministry of Interior at senior level, and cash and reward system has been introduced for the best performers.
The other steps included repatriation of irrelevant officers from FIA; more than 900 vacancies of FIA have been filled through National Testing Service (NTS) and Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), while the process of recruitment against 483 additional vacancies is underway.
Similarly, for a speedy disposal of pending inquiries/cases and to enhance agency’s outreach, measures have been taken which included new FIA police station, established at Mardan, and a special court established in Gujranwala.
The sources said posts of an inspector (Legal/BS-16) have been upgraded to AD (Legal/BS-17), the project of NR3C (National Response Centre for Cyber Crime) phase-I has been regularised, along with the project of Integrated Border Management System (IBMS).
