FIA Officer Assigned to Catch Rats and Oversee Toilets at Karachi Airport

An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) immigration wing at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport has been moved from front-line duties to monitoring washroom cleanliness, sewerage maintenance, and catching rats, according to official orders and airport sources.

ASI Munawar Mehdi has been posted to the office of the Deputy Director of Immigration and designated as an “admin in-charge” for hygiene and sewerage-related matters within the FIA’s immigration area at the airport.

Under the written order, Mehdi has been instructed to:

• Supervise the cleanliness of all washrooms used by passengers and staff in the immigration section.
• Oversee pest-control operations in the sewerage and washroom lines connected to the immigration and Deputy Director’s offices.
• Submit a signed cleanliness report every hour to the Deputy Director, detailing the condition of the facilities.

The directive further requires him to help identify which washrooms and sewerage lines are being used as routes by rats and other pests “causing disruption” in the immigration area and the Deputy Director’s office.

Officials at Karachi airport told reporters that Mehdi’s new posting comes in the wake of an internal FIA inquiry against him. They said the inquiry officer recommended that he should not be deployed at any immigration check-post in the future.

Acting on those findings, the FIA removed him from clearance counters and shifted him to an administrative assignment attached to the Deputy Director’s office, a move senior officials insist is in line with the inquiry’s conclusions.