Noose tightened around negligent immigration officers

KARACHI: The concerned authorities tightened noose around negligent immigration officers who had illegally cleared the travel documents of the nationals recently deported from Saudi Arabia, ARY News reported on Monday.

The authorities made progress in the probe into the deportation of 31 nationals from Saudi Arabia who had travelled to the kingdom over suspicious travel documents.

It has been decided to lodge a case against the negligent immigration officers for clearing the suspicious travel documents of the passengers.

The records of the deported nationals were sent by the Saudi authorities to the Pakistani Embassy and sought strict action against the concerned officers deputed at the international arrival and departure counters.

A First Information Report (FIR) was already registered against the responsible officers, whereas, an investigation is underway against the others. It was learnt that 16 out of 31 travellers were cleared from the immigration counters at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport.

Nine out of 16 deportees were released from custody by the Pakistani authorities without any action despite they were bound to send the persons to the passport circle.

It emerged that 16 deportees had not been issued Pakistani passports from the concerned offices, whereas, their computerised national identity cards (CNICs) had also turned out to be suspicious.

The deportees from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Kabul, Dubai and Muscat had reached the different cities of Saudi Arabia in March and April via the flights of foreign airlines.