Woman among two FIA officials arrested in fake passport case

ISLAMABAD: Two officials of Passport Office Islamabad including a woman have been arrested on Monday by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a case pertaining to issuance of forged passports after their pre-arrest bails were revoked by the Special Judge Central, ARY News reported citing FIA sources.

The arrested suspects were serving at printing section of Passport Office Islamabad and were on bail before arrest. Syed Nabi and a female official were among the arrested accused while the raids are being conducted to nab other persons nominated in the case registered in 2021.

The FIA sources said that the accused persons while misusing their authority had paved the way for issuance of fake official passports to private individuals during their deployment. It added that three persons managed to flee abroad on illegal passports.

Earlier in October 2023, the interior ministry constituted a 9-member joint task force led by the joint director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to probe into the issuance of fake Pakistani passports to Afghan citizens.

Representatives of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Military Intelligence (MI), Interior Ministry, Law Division and Passport Office were included in the joint task force.