LAHORE - Interior Minister Rehman Malik in an internal meeting of the ministry has given verbal approval to increase the salaries of FIA officials by 60 percent and has asked the FIA director general to move a summary in this regard to the ministry for approval, sources in FIA said on Thursday. The sources revealed Rehmam Malik said that FIA was very much active and equivalent to other agencies like motorway police and Islamabad police but its officials were getting low remuneration as compared to the other agencies. It is worth mentioning here that FIA officials have also filed a writ petition in Supreme Court of Pakistan seeking 60 percent increase in their salaries. They are of the view that their peers performing duties at all international airports of the country are getting 60 percent higher salaries than those of other FIA officials. They prayed the court to redress their issue and declaimed that due to this discrimination officials from FIA prefer to work in Immigration section only for getting more salary package. An FIA officer seeking anonymity said FIA was meant to deal with mega corruption cases like NIC case, Pakistan Steel Mills, Bank of Punjab Case and sensitive cases like Lahore High Court Chief Justice murder plan. But on the other hand its official were not being given basic facilities like stationary, weapons, transport and even furniture to sit in the offices, he said. The officer said senior officers were sitting inside their offices with fully decorated rooms and they never bothered to look towards the subordinate staffs working conditions. We dont have even a chair to sit in, he lamented. An other official said the immigration staff working at airports arrange the stationary at their own and where do they arrange it from is best known to them. The FIA officials use cars of applicants to arrest any accused, he added. The condition of weapons is so bad that FIA has to seek help of local police for arresting human smugglers from northern districts of Punjab including Gujrat, and Gujranwala, he said. But the local police support the smugglers, the officer blamed. In meeting other issues like expedition of administrative matters were also discussed and the minister directed all the FIA provincial heads to expedite the development on cases and inquiries and to complete the investigation on time. Rehman Malik also asked all the directors to show zero tolerance against corruption. They were directed to arrest human smugglers without taking any pressure from any quarter. Director Lahore Zafar Qureshi has directed its staff to install complaint boxes in the FIA office and also listen to the applicants on daily basis. The decision of salary raise has sent a waive of happiness among the FIA officials, said an FIA inspector.