ISLAMABAD: In a significant administrative crackdown, the cabinet division has initiated a series of high-level transfers and disciplinary actions within the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to address mounting allegations of regulatory malpractice at the Department of Plant Protection (DPP).
The Cabinet Secretariat’s Establishment Division has moved to restructure the ministry’s leadership by transferring Additional Secretary Amir Mohyuddin and assigning the additional charge of Secretary to Capt (R) Saif Anjum, a BS-22 officer, to ensure a transparent oversight of the ongoing investigations.
These actions by the Cabinet Division set the stage for a wider investigation by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) into the issuance of fraudulent import certificates and procedural discrepancies within the department. All the documents are available with this correspondent.
The administrative shakeup began following a Sindh High Court judgment, which led the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to formally relieve Tahir Abbas, a BS-19 officer of the Pakistan Customs Service, from his dual charge as Plant Protection Adviser and Director General of the DPP on October 5, 2025.
This was followed by the withdrawal of the additional charge of Director General from Dr Attaullah Khan on December 23, 2025, who was simultaneously placed under suspension by the ministry. This was reported earlier by The News.
On the same day, the government also suspended Deputy Director Dr Muhammad Basit and Entomologist Muzammil Hussain under the Civil Servants Efficiency and Discipline Rules, 2020, signaling a zero-tolerance policy toward administrative lapses - official documents reveal.
To address the root causes of these irregularities, the ministry constituted a high-level Fact-Finding Inquiry Committee on December 23, 2025, headed by Additional Secretary-I Alam Zeb Khan. This committee was specifically tasked with identifying the officers responsible for unauthorised changes in notifications regarding the import of beetle nuts under the Pakistan Plant Quarantine Rules, 2019.
As the internal inquiry progressed, the Establishment Division issued a notification on January 2, 2026, appointing Yasin Murtaza, a BS-20 officer of the Pakistan Customs Service, as the new Plant Protection Adviser and Director General of the DPP to restore regulatory stability.
The situation escalated further on January 5, 2026, when the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle in Karachi launched a formal criminal enquiry (No. 1/2026) against M/s Pest Management Services (Pvt) Ltd and several top officials of the DPP, including ex-Director General Tariq Khan and ex-Director General Allah Ditta Abid.
The FIA alleges that the company used forged and fabricated documents to obtain Import Permission Certificates in violation of the legal framework.
The agency has now demanded a comprehensive trail of records, including email correspondence and visit reports from the Pakistan Consulate in Australia, while invoking the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, to probe the financial aspects of the alleged scam.
