LAHORE – AMRAIZ KHAN - The chief executive of a visa consultancy firm, while influencing the inquiry process against him in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), got head of the inquiry team transferred and repatriated to his parent department, sources in the FIA confided to TheNation.
On the direction of the Lahore High Court a team of the FIA headed by Additional Director Jawad Qureshi was conducting inquiry against Malik Asim, Chief Executive of Future Concern, on the charges of minting more than Rs 200 millions from the citizens on pretext of sending them aboard, said a FIA officer seeking anonymity on Monday.
He said there were more than 30 inquiries against Malik Asim and his firm with the FIA wherein the applicants had alleged that his firm had minted money from them in the name of sending them abroad but failed to do so. They claimed that neither he sent them abroad nor was willing to return their money.
Sources added Malik Asim had obtained stay order in his favour from the Islamabad High Court wherein the court had issued orders to all the FIA directors not to summon him on any complaint lodged against him with the FIA.
An officer of the FIA said Malik Asim had taken plea in his petition that since his firm was only providing consultancy services to the applicants so the FIA was not authorised to take such complaints under the FIA Immigration Act, 1979.
Another officer said Malik Asim had also managed to get an order issued by a former FIA director general restraining all FIA directors not to entertain applications against him. Malik Asim was of the view that he was being harassed by the FIA officers only to blackmail him when he was not involved in any sort of border crossing.
A senior FIA officer said consultancy fee could be not more than Rs 50 thousands where as Malik was receiving in millions and sometimes in foreign currency which reflected that he was not providing consultancy but acting as employment promoter.