Pak forms high-level team to probe Olympic visa scam

Pakistan today formed a special investigation team to probe a British newspaper's report that it had uncovered a visa scam that could allow potential terrorists to sneak into Britain with Pakistan's Olympic team.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik, directed the team headed by the Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency to complete its investigation in three days and to arrest those responsible.

The team includes officials from the National Database and Registration Authority, Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and FIA.

NADRA chief Tariq Malik confirmed to the media that the team had been formed and authorities would take strict action against those found to be involved in the scam.

Senior officials of the Interior Ministry claimed it was impossible to make passports without an identity card issued by NADRA and other data.

The officials said a decision had been made to launch a large-scale investigation within NADRA and the passport office that the Sun newspaper of Britain had reported was involved in the scam.

The Sun reported its journalist had infiltrated a criminal ring that offered false passports, visas and access to the 2012 London Olympics as "bogus support staff" of the Pakistani team.

The ring had its undercover reporter get a genuine Pakistani passport in a false name, the newspaper reported.

The scam centred round the Lahore-based Dream Land travel agency and a politician named Abid Chodhary, who claimed he could get a two-month visa and smuggle a person into the Games as part of Pakistan's Olympic squad for 7,000 pounds.

8 Pak officials suspended after Olympic visa scam

Pakistan today suspended eight officials of the National Database and Registration Authority after a British newspaper reported it had uncovered a visa scam that could allow potential terrorists to sneak into Britain with the country's Olympic team.

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