GUJRAT: At least 68 passengers were offloaded from different foreign flights by the immigration officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) at Sialkot International Airport, during the month of November.

As per the FIA officials, some 15 potential beggars were also among the offloaded passengers travelling to Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

They said that nine foreigners -- eight Bangladeshis and one Afghanistan national -- were also deported at Sialkot airport for trying to travel abroad on suspicious documents.

A spokesman for the FIA said that some 88 suspects, including 24 outlaws and three others linked to the victims of Libya boat capsize tragedy, had also been arrested, whereas 193 cases of human trafficking, electricity theft etc, had been lodged with the Gujranwala FIA circlein the last month.

Moreover, he said that fake Pakistani passports, visa stickers of various countries,appointment letters of a foreign embassy and residence cards of Greece and other countries have also been recovered from the suspected human traffickers during a crackdown.

Meanwhile, at least 15 persons involved in human trafficking have also been convicted by courts as a result of the investigation reports filed by the FIA during the last month, he added.

SBP DRIVE: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched a drive for the promotion of digital banking in Gujranwala.

During the three-day drive, the SBP also engaged at least 10 different banks to train their staff in digital payments system.

The inauguration events of the drive were attended by ex-MPA Abdul Rauf Mughal, SBP Senior Joint Director Muhammad Tahir, Assistant Director Rashid Cheema and managements of different banks.

An SBP team, along with the representatives of private banks, also paid visits to the markets in Gujranwala to create an awareness among the traders regarding the use or digital banking for making payments.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2024