Interior Minister Rehman Malik speaks to media persons. — File Photo by Online

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has given a new twist to the episode involving Tauqir Sadiq by saying that former chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) used an unfrequented route to reach Kabul before travelling to Abu Dhabi.

Talking to reporters after presiding over a high-level meeting at the Federal Investigation Agency’s headquarters here on Friday, he said Mr Sadiq obtained Afghanistan’s visa from Peshawar on June 18, 2012, and used an unfrequented route to reach Kabul. In the next three days, he flew to Abu Dhabi from the Afghan capital.

He said a case had been registered against Mr Sadiq for illegally fleeing the country.

The claim by the interior minister is in contrast to the finding of an investigation carried out by the Punjab police, according to which Mr Sadiq travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, before reaching Middle East.

Mr Malik said effective steps to combat grey telephony by the FIA helped save Rs763 million for the national exchequer. The agency conducted successful raids in different cities of the country, particularly Lahore and Karachi, against illegal set-ups and confiscated 49 VoIP Gateways.

He said the FIA and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had been tasked to take action against those involved in grey telephony and causing losses worth millions of dollars to the national kitty.

Mr Malik said some influential people in Sindh were found involved in setting up illegal gateway exchanges and the FIA had been directed to act against them.

He said the FIA nabbed 8,790 human traffickers during the past five years as part of its measures to control the crime. The agency arrested 1,642 human traffickers in 2008, 1,775 in 2009, 1,779 in 2010, 1,639 in 2011 and 1,955 in 2012. The agency registered 22,654 cases during the period, arrested 2,189 proclaimed offenders and 580 court absconders and also nabbed 18,138 convicted in cases during the past five years.

Answering a question about the case of six Afghans travelling on fake documents, the minister said officials involved in the episode had been arrested and would face court of law.

Mr Malik praised the FIA for investigating some important cases, particularly Bombay blasts and the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

He said that at the meeting decisions had been taken to further improve the performance of FIA. Issues related to welfare of FIA employees, including a separate housing society for the employees had also been discussed.