Yesterday, (December 16) after PTA delivered the letter of with drawl to FIA, we rushed to FIA to process the case of dismissal of case and discharge report of Faisal for the court. To our utter surprise, we met there a gentleman in FIA, Akbar Hoti. He’s from Police Service of Pakistan, a DIG ranked officer serving as Director Crimes, FIA, Islamabad. A rugged looking officer but having heart of a humble person, Mr. Hoti had us sit in his office, served coffee and biscuits while he repeatedly asked his Inspectors, Assistant Director, Deputy Director and Additional Director to fill the file stomach, put down the affidavits, type the case, print the papers and finally signed off the case discharge approval. He told his staff that he’d be sitting in office till they clear all formalities and bring the file to him for final approval. It was 4:30 pm on Saturday when he signed the papers, hand over the file to Investigation Officer and asked him to accompany us to the court for order of the judge. His weekend evening was spoiled but committed with the cause and moved by innocence of Faisal, Mr. Hoti turned out to be a blessing for us and cut down the process of many days of running around (and payment of ‘fees’ to FIA officials) into just couple of hours. Minister for IT had already called up him from his office to apprise him of the case, but this police officer was more than sympathetic and committed, perhaps the most humane police officer we’ve ever met. We salute you Mr. Hoti from core of our hearts….
We rushed to the court to see the judge but it was already dark when we reached there and the judge left his office five minutes earlier, sad as Faisal had to spent another day in Adiala..
Case would be presented to the Judge on Monday morning and inshallah Faisal would be out same day after receipt of court orders.
PSEB’s role has been remarkable, unlike Government’s offices who just act as post offices and nothing else. Yusuf has been struggling from the day one, 5th Dec when Faisal was arrested. He called many high-ups, but initially no one was prepared to listen to him either. He has also cut short his trip abroad and arrived last eve, not many bureaucrats would like to call of their official ‘leisure’ overseas trips. We’re indebted to you, Yusuf and your team including Talib Baloch and others.
Minister for IT, Awais Leghari took the last minute credit, putting down his full weight and having PTA to submit the with drawl request to FIA [der ayed drust ayed]. Gen. Shahzada, Chairman PTA also realized that his ‘trigger happy’ team had terribly let him down and this was the time to act positively for which we’re thankful to him, too. Mr. Noor ud Din Baqai, Member Telecom also deserves applause for his hectic efforts in getting this moved while other officers of MoIT just watched silently over the fence.
We’d wait for seven days promise of the Minister of IT for acting on the charter of demands of industry that we’ve submitted to him on Saturday.
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1 comment:
But is this enough?
I don't think that the main problem here was PTA, infact it was FIA or their process. How can they detain or arrest someone without investigation? If you start arresting based on just filing FIR then this will go on.
This threat is still there for software industry. What apologize can do to heal the damage to the country reputation? They may pay some compensation to Cogilent but why would I or any other new businesses try to invest in Pakistan if this kind of nonsense is there. I would rather setup my operations in India to get the job done where there is no such fear.
What if Cogilent had done this?
What if it was there IP address?
Still its not criminal act. They should be able to distingish between criminal or civil cases? You can not even just arrest for even white-collar crimes. There should be some process.
With proper process, they should have provided proper notice to company, let them provide documentation to support their case. If the company continued to do this without warnings, then arrest should be done as a last resort.
The max penalty for this kind of illegal activity should be fines, not arrests.
Government of Pakistan should seriously think over their IT policy one more time. They should also give a serious thought to their Justice System especially when it comes to dealing with professionals and professionals organizations.
Companies will continue to move their operations outside Pakistan even Pakistani businessmen prefer setting up their operations in India as compare to Pakistan just because this kind of nonsense.
They can get away with lots of voilations with their local people but they will continue to loose in front of rest of the world.
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