Federal Investigation Agency


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

The Federal Investigation Agency (acronym: FIA) is an agency of Pakistan, under the Ministry of Interior, that serves as a federal criminal investigative body. It has a wide role in combating terrorism, fascism, corruption, human smuggling and copyright infringement policing, similar in function to the USA's FBI. The FIA is mandated as the liaison agency for the Pakistani body of Interpol. Its motto is Accuracy and Honesty.

The FIA's headquarters is located in G-9/4 in Islamabad. It has various branch offices located in all major cities across Pakistan.

Mission statement
To achieve excellence in FIA by promoting culture of merit, providing continuous professional training, ensuring effective internal accountability, encouraging use of technology and having a meaningful feedback mechanism.

History
A federally controlled Police Establishment first came into existence in 1942 during the Second World War to take up investigation of corruption, rampant in the Supplies and Procurement Department of the then British Raj. It was named as Special Police Establishment. After the end of the British Raj and the Independence of Pakistan in 1947, it was renamed to Pakistan Special Police Establishment (PSPE). The said establishment was given a schedule of offenses with Ordinance VIII of 1948. With the passage of time, the PSPE, apart from investigating the offenses of bribery and corruption against Central Government Employees, was also given powers to investigate cases relating to the offenses under the following laws:-

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The FIA was established in 1975 under the Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974 and superseded the Pakistan Special Police Establishment.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 80 Crime Scene investigators 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. Counter Terrorism Wing (CTW) In January 2011 SIG was expanded and a full separated wing was established to curb menace of terrorism in Pakistan ;Namely, Counter Terrorism Wing. currently CTW having experts in Forensics, Crime Scene Investigation, Explosive Analysis,Money Laundering.CTW also assist other law enforcement agencies in field of investigation. To date CTW has always been an integral part of HIGH PROFILE terrorist cases.

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 Director Generals
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 Muhammad Anwar Virk of the Police Service of Pakistan who was appointed in July, 2012, succeeding the former DG Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari.

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. Muhammad Anwar Virk, PSP, PPM