Federal Investigation Agency

For the similarly named Mexican institution, see Federal Investigations Agency.

Federal Investigation Agency Urdu: وفاقی ادارۂ تحقیقات
Abbreviation	FIA
The Federal Investigation Agency emblem
Motto	Urdu: صداقت دیانت
	Accuracy and Honesty
Agency overview
Formed	1975
Preceding agency	Pakistan Special Police Establishment (1948)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	Pakistan
Governing body	Government of Pakistan
Constituting instrument	Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974
General nature	Federal law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Headquarters	Islamabad
Agency executive	Waseem Ahmed, PSP, Director General
Wings	8 Crime wing National Central Bureau (NCB) (Interpol) FIA Academy Immigration Wing Technical Wing Legal Wing Anti Human Trafficking Wing Administration Wing

i. Official Secret Act, 1923
ii. Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947
iii. Passport Offenses Act, 1952
iv. Customs Act, 1959

The FIA was established in 1975 under the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974 and superseded the Pakistan Special Police Establishment.

Special FIA Teams

In 2005, to deal with the growing indigenous terrorist problem, the FIA formed an elite Counter Terrorism unit named Special Investigation Group (SIG). The SIG comprises 87 investigation officers and 13 Specialists in IT, Explosives, Banking and Law. The US, the UK, Germany and the UNODC have provided extensive training and equipment to the SIG. The Federal Government notifies the SIG to investigate offences punishable under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 jointly with provincial police departments.

FIA Successes

In 2001 a petition was filed in the USA which disputed Pakistan's commitment to rooting out piracy within its national borders. In 2005, Pakistan was en-route to having its US duty-free Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) being taken away from it. Thus in order to avert any further negative fallout, sections of the Copyright Ordinance 1962 were included in the FIA's schedule of offences. This legislation paved the way in 2005, under the direction of the federal interior ministry, to raid the country's largest video wholesale centre: The Rainbow Centre. Raiding the factories of the dealers that operated within the centre proved to be a highly successful entreprise, resulting in a reduction of 60% of sales of pirated video material. A spokesman from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), later confirmed, that many of the outlets had stopped selling pirated video goods and were now selling mobile phones, highlighting that the FIA's raids and the resultant legal action was a success.

FIA Scandals

It was also reported that 5 FIA personnel were investigated for their alleged role in human trafficking and most of them were dismissed from the service.

FIA & Foreign Cooperation

In 2006, the FIA resumed operational links with its Indian counterpart, the Central Bureau of Investigation, after a gap of 17 years.

FIA participates in the PISCES project which was initiated by the US Department of State, Terrorist Interdiction Program (TIP) in 1997, as a system to improve their watchlisting capabilities by providing a mainframe computer system to facilitate immigration processing. PISCES system has been installed at seven major airports of the country i.e. Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Faisalabad airports. The system has provision to accommodate information on suspects from all law enforcement agencies like Immigration, Police, Narcotics Control, Anti-smuggling, and Intelligence Services.

Organization

The FIA is organized into functional Wings and the office of the Director General. The Director General is assisted by three Additional Director Generals (Crime, Immigration and Administration) and eight directors for the effective monitoring and smooth functioning of the operations spread all over the country. Three of the directors are responsible for SIG, NCB and Legal Branch and the other five are placed in the strategic capitals of each state, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad Capital Territory. A deputy director assists with the functioning of the SIU.

The FIA training academy was first opened for use in 1976 specifically to train/equip new FIA recruits, though its scope was enhanced and now Police Officers, Army/Air Force Officers, NAB and members of other agencies participate in different courses which are conducted at the academy.

Organization Structure

• Immigration Wing (Additional DG)
  • PISCES (Director)
  • Immigration (Director)
  • AHS (Director)
    • ATU (Deputy Director)
    • Law (Director)
    • LO (Deputy Director)
• Crime wing (Additional DG)
  • Tech (Director)
    • Tech (Deputy Director)
    • Crime (Deputy Director)
  • Law (Director)
  • I&M (Director)
  • IPR (Director)
• Administration Wing (Additional DG)
  • FIA Academy
  • Admin
• SIG (Director)
  • Operations
  • Admin/Intel
• National Central Bureau (NCB) (Interpol) (Director)
• SIU (Deputy Director), as directly under the Director General
• Legal Branch
• Punjab (Director)
• Sindh (Director)
• Islamabad (Director)
• Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (Director)
• Balochistan (Director)

Structure

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has its Headquarter in Islamabad. The Chief Presiding Officer of the Agency is called the Director General, same is appointed by Ministry of Interior. The Headquarter provide support to 4 Provincial offices, i-e Sindh, Punjab, KPK, Balochistan & Federal Capital Islamabad. The Provincial heads of Agency are called Directors. Further there are about (?) smaller offices known as Wings or Circles e.g Crime, Corporate Crime, Banking Crime and Anti-Human Trafficking Circles at provincial level, they are headed by Additional and Deputy Directors, these are helped by Investigation officers(I.O) like Assistant Directors, Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and Assistant Sub-Inspectors etc for running of bureau business. The Wings are major segments of Agency known as Anti-Corruption or Crime Wing, Immigration Wing, Technical Wing, Legal Wing and Administration Wing. Further there are branches working under the command of above-mentioned Wings viz Counter terrorism branch (SIG), Interpol branch, Legal branch, Crime branch, Economic crime branch, Intellectual Property Rights branch, Immigration branch, Anti-Human Smuggling branch, PISCES branch, Administration branch, Implementation and monitoring branch.

FIA Directors

Main article: Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency

The FIA is headed by a Director-General (DG), appointed by the federal government, generally a very senior Police Officer of BPS 21/22, based at the Headquarters in Islamabad. The current FIA Director General is Syed Tahsin Anwar Ali of the Police Service of Pakistan who was appointed in Jun, 2011, succeeding the former DG Malik Muhammad Iqbal.

Lahore Bombings (2008)

The FIA office in Lahore was targeted during the Lahore twin suicide bombings. The building was severely damaged during the suicidal attack. Geo News later reported that "The building also housed the offices of a special US-trained unit created to counter terrorism" suggesting a motive.

Notable people

• Mr. Rehman Malik, Minister Interior
• Mr. Tariq Pervez, Ex DG FIA
• Mr. Tariq Khosa, Ex DG FIA
• Mr. Maj(R) M.Arif Chaudhry, EX ADG FIA

External links

• FIA's official website, Government of Pakistan