ISLAMABAD, July 22 (Alliance News): The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Tuesday arrested 12 suspects, including two passport office employees and 10 private agents, during a major crackdown on the passport agent mafia operating outside passport offices in Lahore.
According to an FIA spokesperson, the Anti-Corruption Circle Lahore conducted raids at passport offices in Garden Town, Shahdara and Harbanspura after receiving complaints of illegal facilitation and overcharging of passport applicants.
The arrested suspects allegedly charged citizens hefty amounts under the false promise of expediting passport processing, demanding payments far above the officially prescribed government fee.
During the operation, FIA officials recovered several Pakistani passports, passport application tokens, bank challans, receipts and other documentary evidence from the suspects.
Cases have been registered against all the arrested individuals, while further investigations are underway to identify other members of the network.
The FIA urged citizens to avoid dealing with unauthorized agents and advised passport applicants to use only official channels for passport-related services.
The agency said its campaign against illegal agents operating outside passport offices would continue to eliminate corruption and protect the public from fraud.
Earlier this month, the FIA’s Counter Terrorism Wing in Karachi uncovered an alleged network involved in issuing Pakistani passports to Afghan nationals using forged documents. During that operation, two suspects were arrested and records linked to more than 70 suspected foreign nationals were seized for investigation.
