[9] Originally the Police Establishment was tasked to take up investigation of corruption in Indian Civil Service (ICS), rampant in the Supplies and Procurement Department of the then British Raj.

With the passage of time, the PSPE, apart from investigating the offences of bribery and corruption against officials of the federal government, was also given powers to investigate cases relating to offences under the following laws: After the 1971 war with India, police reforms were carried out by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after adopting recommendations from the report submitted by bureaucrat G. Ahmad in Prime Minister Secretariat, on 7 March 1972.

[9] Initially, its first roles were to build efforts against organised crimes, smuggling, human trafficking, immigration offences, and passport scandals.

[10] Although ostensibly a crime-investigation service, the FIA also did investigations of accused political opponents and critics of financial impropriety, from tax evasions to taking bribery while in office.

[9] In 1981, the FIA agents successfully investigated and interrogated the culprits behind the hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines Boeing 720 CR, immediately holding Murtaza Bhutto for its responsibility.

[12] From 1982 to 1988, the FIA launched a series of investigations and probes against Pakistan Communist Party leader Jam Saqi and aided the court proceedings relating to its findings.

[15] The FIA notably worked together with the FBI to conduct investigations of the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center in New York, United States.

[1] The CTW agents were provided extensive training and equipment handling by the FBI under the Anti Terrorism Assistance Program (ATTP).

[20] Eventually FIA's successful investigations led to Mohammed's capture in Rawalpindi, Punjab, in a paramilitary operation conducted jointly by the CIA and the ISI in 2003.

[21] Efforts on probes against copyright violation was increased after a petition was filed by the FBI which disputed Pakistan's commitment to rooting out infringement within its national borders in 2001.

[22] Raiding the factories of the dealers that operated within the centre proved to be a highly successful enterprise, resulting in a reduction of 60% of sales of bootlegged video material.

[22] In 1972–73, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto adopted many recommendations of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission's papers after seeing the intelligence failure in East Pakistan.

[29] The FIA shared most of its findings gathered through interrogation of the arrested suspects to help hunt down the top members of al-Qaeda, with the FBI.

[30] Other FIA special teams included the Anti-Corruption Wing (ACW) which was established in 2004 to lead probes against corrupt officials and other white collar criminals.

The system has provision to accommodate about information on suspects from all law enforcement agencies like Immigration, Police, Narcotics Control, Anti-smuggling, and Intelligence Services.

This wing is commonly known as the National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NR3C) and has the credit of arresting 12 hackers, saving millions of dollars for the government exchequer.

The headquarters provide support to 7 provincial offices, i.e. Sindh-I, Sindh-II, Punjab-I, Punjab-II, KPK, Balochistan and Federal Capital Islamabad.

[10] In 1990s, the FIA was involved in running active intelligence operation against the Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF) on behest of the government.

[41] In the 1980s, the FIA also targeted Pakistani leftist groups and was instrumental in conducting inquiries (Jam Saqi case) in preparation against the Communist Party of Pakistan.

[42] On 11 March 2008, the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) coordinated the twin suicide bombings to target the counter-terrorist unit of FIA based in Lahore.

The Geo News later reported that "the building also housed the offices of a special US-trained units of FBI created to counter terrorism" suggesting a motive.