KARACHI – Hundreds of youngsters from Sindh, and particularly from Karachi, hoping to head to the Gulf and Europe for employment, are falling prey to fake overseas recruiting agencies in the city that operate under the alleged patronage of Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) authorities, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The FIA has received many complaints against fake overseas recruiting agencies, but no punitive action has been taken against these agencies due to the influential background of their owners, FIA officials told Pakistan Today on condition of anonymity. The officials said that the investigation authority raided a number of fake overseas recruiting agencies, but cash collected from aspiring youngsters could not be returned to the swindled individuals.
One such individual, Abid Ali Memon, who is a civil engineer by profession and had experience working with the National Highway Authority (NHA), told Pakistan Today that he had read an advertisement in a local newspaper that job vacancies were available for engineers and doctors in Gulf and European countries.
“I visited a branch office of an agency called People’s Recruiting Bureau last month; the office was situated on the first floor of KDA Apartment Block A in North Nazimabad. The officials at the office briefed me in a professional manner, and said that I had to pay at least Rs 30,000 in advance. This amount was to be adjusted in other charges after job confirmation – promised within two months,” Memon explained.
“I paid Rs 30,000 cash in advance to the People’s Recruiting Bureau, and I was provided with a company’s cheque No 07148012 of the Allied Bank of Limited, Ferozpur Road, 17-KM Ferozpur Road, Lahore. In case there was no progress within two months, I was asked to withdraw the said amount on March 13, 2011,” he further said. “After a passage of more than 20 days, I visited the firm’s branch office in North Nazimabad, but I was shocked to see that office furniture and display boards had been removed, and a large number of passports were stacked on one corner of the office,” he said.
“The company’s private guard informed me that office furniture and other stuff were moved a night before. The guard also complained that the officials were supposed to pay him two months of salary,” he said. “I dialled the phone numbers of both the Karachi and Lahore offices, as well as the mobile phone numbers given to me, but no one responded. Memon later approached the Taimuria police station to lodge a formal complaint against the firm, but the police in turn informed him that that the hustlers had left with some Rs 4.7 million cash.
FIA officials, on the other hand, told Pakistan Today that M/S People’s Recruiting Bureau was a registered firm with licence no 0027/LHR/83. “Investigations are underway in the case, and those who pocketed millions of rupees of poor jobless youths would be brought to the book,” FIA officials claimed.
