ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been assigned by the government to hold a comprehensive probe into unlawful foreign exchange transactions by different Forex companies across Pakistan. This was officially announced yesterday.
The NAB, which had been investigating into corruption cases of President Asif Ali Zardari and his slain wife Benazir Bhutto, has been reduced to a smaller organization to conduct only “white-color crimes.”
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has sent the inquiry case of Kinashi Enterprise, AR Enterprise and Ahsan Enterprise to NAB. The NAB approved a thorough investigation into the allegations regarding three companies’ involvement in corrupt practices and money laundering.
The three companies are facing allegations of being involved in illegal transfer of 50 million dollars and money laundering.
Pakistan’s federal minister and leader of the House told the Senate on Wednesday that “former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz unlawfully transferred $4.5 billion abroad.”
Answering a question in the Senate, Raza Rabbani said Shaukat Aziz made this huge money through manipulation of stock exchanges, kickbacks from different big deals including that of Gawadar rights, privatization of two major banks and misuse of his powers in granting concessions to some multinational companies.
Rabbani said these transactions came into the knowledge of government when the FIA scanned record of various forex companies. House was further informed that Shaukat Aziz was out to privatize Pakistan Steel Mills where he was caught.
Raza Rabbani said this was one of the reasons that Pakistan was facing economic crunch and to avoid further deterioration in national economy Pakistan was seeking assistance from Friends of Pakistan and the IMF.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s top crime fighting body, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), will soon arrest more currency dealers involved in illegally sending US dollars out of the country allegedly to the tune of $10 billion which has sent the country’s currency into a tailspin against the dollar, according to a senior FIA official.
Last week, Pakistan’s top crime fighting body, FIA arrested seven currency dealers who were allegedly involved in illegally sending out some $10 billion out of the country leading to the Pakistani currency, rupee, falling to 86 to a dollar from 60 to a dollar in March this year.
After the arrests, the rupee has climbed to 79 to a dollar. According to FIA sources, last week’s arrest of leading currency dealers Khanani and Kalia led to five more arrests and the computers of these dealers having a record of illegal transactions have also been taken into custody.
“Some of the dealers have escaped the country or have gone underground and we are trying to trace them,” a senior FIA official told reporters.
“Some currency dealers were cooperating with the investigators and we’ll soon make some more high profile arrests,” he said.
The official said that some politicians, leading businessmen and bureaucrats are involved in the scam.
“We are also tracing some multinational companies who illegally transferred dollars from Pakistan,” the official said.
— With input from agencies
