ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) has arrested a travel agent in a case registered on a complaint put forward by the US Embassy.
The agency arrested travel agent Muhammad Zohaib. As per the case registered by the agency, the US Embassy alleged that six students, including Qandeel Waseem, Abahat Owais, Shahid Hussain, Muqadas Sheikh, Qandeel Fatima and Awais Naeem, applied for visas and appeared for interviews on June 4, 2026.
It says that all the students submitted documents claiming they had been awarded Higher Education Commission (HEC)-funded PhD scholarships. Following the verification from the HEC, it was found that none of the applicants was enrolled in any HEC-funded PhD programme, and all the documents submitted to the embassy were allegedly forged and fabricated.
According to the FIA, the initial investigations also revealed that Muhammad Zohaib, associated with Broadway Consultancy in Sialkot, and his alleged accomplice, Jaseeb alias Jabbar, received between USD 15,000 and USD 38,000 from the applicants. The agency registered a case under sections 420, 468 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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