ISLAMABAD: A former army official who went to Nepal for a job interview earlier this week has gone missing, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria confirmed on Saturday.
“Foreign Office is in contact with Pakistan Embassy in Kathmandu and also have established contacts with Nepalese authorities,” Radio Pakistan quoted Zakaria as saying. Lt Col (r) Habib Zahir had been working at Rafhan Mills in Faisalabad. Zahir had posted his resume on job portal LinkedIn and on the UN website. A month ago, a man named Mark Thomson contacted him through email and from a UK phone number claiming Zahir had been shortlisted for the job of vice president/zonal director with a salary package of $3,500-8,500 per month and asked him to come to Kathmandu, Nepal for an interview on April 6. Zahir was sent a business class ticket for April 5 to Kathmandu via Oman. According to the initial investigation, a man named Javed Ansari received him in Oman and provided him a Nepali cell phone number. Sources said the former officer then arrived in Kathmandu on April 6 and on the same day he left for Lumbini, a town five kilometres away from the Indian border, via a Buddha Air flight. He texted his wife at 1pm informing her he had safely landed in Lumbini. However, she has not heard from Zahir since then. Both his Pakistani and Nepali numbers are switched off. The family has lodged an FIR.
