Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), under its special campaign, has registered total 368 cases of human trafficking in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) during the last three years.
Special campaign against Human Traffickers was launched as per the direction of Minister for Interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan while Red Book of Human Traffickers also prepared and circulated to all concerned.
A data issued by Interior Division regarding registration of total cases in KPK 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 number of registered cases against accused was 157 and the number of convictions during 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, 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 kerb 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The sources said FIA (APT) Rules, framed in 1975 were outdated and inconsistent with contemporary legal requirements in terms of Agency’s administrative and functional domains.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, 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 have been enforced through the 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 speedy disposal of pending inquiries/cases and to enhance Agency’s outreach some measures have been taken including new FIA Police Station has been established at Mardan and the special court has been established in Gujranwala.
The sources said posts of Inspector (Legal/BS-16) have been upgraded to AD (Legal/BS-17), Project of NR3C (National Response Centre for Cyber Crime) Phase-I has been regularised as well as the project of Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) has also been regularised.