Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)

The Federal Investigation Agency (Urdu: وفاقی تحقیقاتی ادارہ) is a border control, criminal investigation, counter-intelligence and security agency under the control of the Interior Secretary of Pakistan, established in 1976. Major tasks of FIA are investigative jurisdiction on undertaking operations against terrorism, espionage, federal crimes, smuggling as well as infringement and other specific crimes. The FIA headquarter is located in Islamabad and field offices are located in all major cities throughout Pakistan. In the 1980, the FIA’s investigation was increased to take actions against communist terrorism.

As of 2009, FIA has 10 active departments to lead criminal charges and investigation, with priorities:

• Counter-terrorism Wing (CTW)
• Anti-Corruption Wing (ACW)
• Economic Crime Wing (ECW)
• Immigration Wing (IW)
• Technical Wing (TW)
• Legal Branch (LB)
• National Central Bureau (NCB)
• Anti Trafficking Unit (ATU)

After securing voting plurality in 1993 Pakistani general elections, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto further widened the scope of FIA, making FIA akin to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the intelligence community.

The FIA is headed by the appointed Director-General who is appointed by the Prime Minister, and confirmed by the President. Appointment for the Director of FIA either comes from the high-ranking officials of police or the civil bureaucracy. The DG FIA reports to the Interior Secretary of Pakistan. The Director General of the FIA is assisted by three Additional Director-Generals and ten Directors for effective monitoring and smooth functioning of the operations spread all over the country

FIA formed National Centre for Cyber Crimes, a specialised wing for investigating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related crimes. This wing is commonly known as NR3C, established in 2002. It has the credit of arresting 12 hackers, saving millions of dollars for the government exchequer.

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