Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh FIA Acting Director Asim Khan Qaimkhani has ordered an internal group of immigration officers posted at Jinnah International Airport to let poor Bangalies exit on emergency passports issues by their high commission without inquiring about the other legalities necessary for departure.

The Bangladeshi citizens who have been residing illegally in Pakistan had to bring in a travel permit from the special branch and an exit permit from Ministry of Interior along with their emergency passports issued from their high commission which had to be also verified prior to their departure abroad.

This internal memo issued on the Whatsapp group of the FIA officials clearly orders all shift in charges and the AD departure to facilitate the ‘poor’ bangalis, and not to bother them for bringing in other relevant documents but the AD should only make sure that they are poor.

The implementation of this order means that anybody holding an emergency BD passport can simply slip out of the country even if the passport is fake, as the acting director has restrained the procedure of even checking the authenticity of the document prior to their departure.

When Daily Times contacted FIA an official posted at Jinnah airport close to Qaimkhani and asked him about the consequences of this order. He said on autonomy that the director is the ‘king’ of the federal agency and has the power to pass any order he deems it in the wellbeing of the organisation and the country and no body should question it. “The people sitting in immigration are smart enough to distinguish between the criminals and poor bagalies. We know what we are doing and are aware of whose benefit would it go in,” he added.

It has been learnt through reliable sources that a close a aide of Qaimkhani; Farooq Memon, a known human and drug smuggler, is behind this order and wants some people to escape the country under the cover of ‘poor’ bangalis.

Daily Times repeatedly tried to contact Asim Khan QaimKhani for his version but he did not respond to any calls.