ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) announced on Monday that it has arrested the main suspect in the 2024 Greek boat tragedy, vowing to continue its crackdown against human traffickers who send people to Europe and other countries on illegal sea journeys. 

The incident took place in December 2024 when four Pakistanis died after a migrant boat they were on sank near the Greek island of Crete. Each year, thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums for risky and illegal journeys to developed countries, hoping to find work and send money back to their families. 

The FIA said its team arrested the main suspect, Usman Jaja, from the eastern city of Sialkot. The agency said he had gone into hiding since the Greek boat tragedy took place in December last year. 

“Suspect Usman Jaja tried to send several citizens to Europe via boat,” the FIA said in a statement. “The boat met with an accident in which several youths died.”

The FIA said Jaja was wanted by the FIA’s Gujranwala chapter in more than eight cases, alleging that he was part of an international gang of human traffickers. The agency said it has started an investigation against the suspect, adding that raids are being conducted to arrest others involved with him as well. 

“Our crackdown against elements involved in boat accidents is underway,” FIA Gujranwala Director Abdul Qadir Qamar was quoted as saying by the agency. “All resources are being used to arrest the suspects.”

He said the agency’s intelligence-based operations against human traffickers are underway, vowing that no one would be allowed to play with the lives of innocent people. 

In 2023, hundreds of migrants, including 262 Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel capsized and sank in international waters off the southwestern Greek coastal town of Pylos. It was one of the deadliest boat disasters ever recorded in the Mediterranean Sea.

Greece was a favored gateway to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2015-2016, when nearly 1 million people landed on its islands, mostly via inflatable dinghies.

Incidents with migrant boats and shipwrecks off Crete and its tiny neighbor Gavdos, which are relatively isolated in the central Mediterranean, have increased since 2023.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari is addressing the joint session of Pakistan’s parliament amid loud protest chants from opposition lawmakers, mostly from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Monday. 

Pakistan’s president is constitutionally required to address both houses of parliament at the start of the first session of each parliamentary year. Zardari, who previously served as Pakistan’s president from 2018-2013, has addressed joint sessions of the parliament seven times before. 

Pakistani presidents’ addresses to parliament have been marred by noisy protests from opposition lawmakers in the past. As soon as Zardari started his speech, PTI lawmakers started banging their desks and shouting slogans in favor of their party’s founder, former prime minister Imran Khan. 

“It is my singular privilege as your civilian president to address for the eighth time the august house at the beginning of another parliamentary year,” Zardari said amid loud chants by opposition members. 

Earlier, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said stringent security arrangements were put in place at the Parliament House. Quoting the National Assembly Secretariat, it said entry for guests was prohibited while media representatives would be allowed in “limited numbers.”

The president’s address takes place as Pakistan navigates a tricky path to economic recovery after a prolonged macroeconomic crisis. Pakistan’s government says its economic reforms over the past one year have yielded fruit, pointing to improving macroeconomic indicators such as a decline in inflation, current account surplus and increase in exports. 

The country, however, faces surging militancy in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan. Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have reported an increase in attacks launched by religiously motivated militants and separatist outfits since November 2022, dealing a blow to Pakistan’s efforts to root out militancy. 

The Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government is also grappling with political instability as its tensions with Khan’s PTI persist. The former prime minister continues to remain popular from behind bars, with his party leading a large protest calling for his release from prison last year that involved clashes with law enforcers. 

Both sides attempted to break the political deadlock in the country by holding negotiations in December 2024. However, after three rounds of talks, the negotiations failed as the PTI pulled out in January, citing the government’s failure to form judicial commissions to investigate protests it led in May 2023 and November 2024.