Drive against piracy: FIA seizes thousands of CDs, arrests 11

Staff Report

KARACHI: Within a fortnight of inclusion of some sections of the Copy Right Ordinance (CRO) 1962 in its schedule of offences, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided on Tuesday six manufacturing and recording facilities of compact disks (CDs) in the city, recovered about 100,000 CDs and arrested 11 people on a charge of violation of section 66 of the CRO.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Passport Cell, Director Karachi Zone of the agency Babar Khattak said after the inclusion of CRO in FIA schedule on April 16, its director-general had ordered a countrywide drive against production of CDs in violation of the law.

Khattak said the CDs recovered included Indian and English video and music, recorded and master copies.

The FIA director informed that 11,000 CDs were recovered from BS Magnetic in Federal B Area and the agency also arrested recording specialist Arif and production in charge Saleem. A raid on Suleman & Co yielded the recovery of 6,000 master copies of Indian and English video and music CDs and several thousands recorded copies and arrest of Manager Nasir Ali. In raid on Dispatch in North Karachi 36,000 VCDs, 450 printing plates and 119 master prints were recovered and owner of the company Farooq Chapra and manager Hashmat Hussain were arrested.

Raid on a facility in SITE resulted in the arrest of manager Rashed Iqbal and printing manager Rasheed Akhtar and recovery of 12,000 CDs, 560 master prints and several thousands printing covers. 2,000 CDs, 216 master prints, 12,000 audio cassettes, 200 magnetic reels and 300 MP reels were recovered in a raid on United Corporation, and company manager Mohammad Farooq and office manager Shahbaz were arrested.

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