The US Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) is helping the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)
install the personal identification, secure comparison
and alleviation system (PISCAS) at Pakistani airports
to counter terrorism and human trafficking.
FIA sources told Daily Times on Wednesday
that the FBI was also helping install fingerprints identification
systems, national criminal database systems and anti-cyber
crime systems.
The FBI is providing hardware for the
four systems while the software is being developed in
Pakistan with the help of US experts. Syed Irshad Hussain,
the acting FIA director general, confirmed that the FBI
experts were helping the FIA upgrade of its security systems
to counter terrorism and human trafficking from Pakistan.
The PISCAS is to have records of wanted
terrorists, known human traffickers, the proclaimed offenders
and missing and stolen passports. Two systems have already
been installed, at the Karachi and Islamabad airports.
Mr Hussain said under PISCAS, several
blacklisted people had been arrested and many stolen passports
seized.
Asked of any Al Qaeda members or high
profile terrorists had been arrested at any Pakistani
airport, he said, “Many such people have been arrested.”
Mr Hussain also confirmed the FIA was gearing up a drive
against officials within the department.
The sources said these officials had helped
human traffickers bypass new security systems. “These
elements tell the human traffickers of the internal mechanisms
or security checks so the traffickers can evade the detection
system,” an FIA official said.
Seven FIA officials - Javed Iqbal, Merani,
Ahmad Ali, Aman Shah, Raja Arshad, Khawaja Tuqueer and
Muhammad Javed – are reported to have been suspended
recently for alleged links with human traffickers. Mr
Hussain would not say how many officials had been booked
for helping human traffickers, but said some had been
sacked while inquires against several others were ongoing.
“I myself held an inquiry on the
complaint of a European embassy when some Pakistanis were
deported and FIA officials were reportedly involved. These
officials were found guilty and I suspended them immediately,”
he said. Mr Hussain said though human trafficking out
of Pakistan had been rising over the last few years, it
was now on the decline because of the FIA’s strict
security controls. “Some foreign countries acknowledge
that human trafficking from Pakistan has decreased,”
he added.
Asked to comment on a report that the
FIA had banned a Pakistani cultural delegation consisting
of teenage girls from travelling to Europe and the Middle
East, Mr Hussain said he was not aware of the incident.
According to FIA sources, 1,836 people
were arrested and booked last year under the Human Trafficking
Ordinance of 2002, including 570 offloaded passengers,
648 deportees, 540 human traffickers and 71 overseas employment
promoters; 807 fake passports were seized; and 225 recruiting
agents were charged with human trafficking of which 124
were arrested and 62 cases were sent to the courts.
In 2003, 659 people were arrested for
violating passport laws, while 204 were arrested in the
first three months of 2004. In 2003, 2,639 inquiries against
human traffickers were completed, while 670 inquiries
were completed in the first three months of 2004. The
acting FIA director general said most victims usually
compromise on their complaints against human traffickers
in the courts after getting back the money they were defrauded
of and that is why so few traffickers were convicted.
Mr Hussain said human trafficking was
worse than human smuggling because traffickers not only
made money by sending people abroad but continued to extort
them if they started earning money. Traffickers are even
supplying Pakistani women to Europe and the Middle East
for prostitution, he said.
