At least five arrested as Pakistan widens crackdown on illegal currency exchange, transfers
The development comes days after the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's powerful military-run spy agency, held a meeting in Islamabad with senior officials from currency exchange companies, amid growing concern over the rupee's depreciation, which fell to a 22-month low of Rs284.97 against the US dollar earlier this week.
Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, a deputy chief of the ISI, chaired the session, according to Malik Bostan, who attended the discussion and is the chairman of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP), told Arab News. The FIA had begun raiding informal, unregulated money transfer, or 'hundi' and 'hawala,' operators and currency smuggling networks.
In a statement on Sunday, the agency said it was tightening the noose around networks involved currency smuggling and had conducted major operations in the southwestern Balochistan province that border Iran and Afghanistan.
'Five suspects involved in hawala, hundi and illegal currency exchange have been arrested,' the FIA said in a statement. 'The suspects were arrested in raids in different areas of Quetta and Chaman.'
Pakistan operates a multi-tiered currency market, with rates diverging between the official interbank channel, the open market, and an unregulated 'grey market' where many traders and informal hawala dealers operate.
Burdened by over $58 billion in imports in the last fiscal year, Pakistan faces severe inflationary pressure whenever the dollar strengthens. The rupee has lost 2 percent of its value since January, despite Pakistan's current account recording a surplus of $2.1 billion, according to central bank data.
During the raids in Balochistan, the FIA said, officials seized 684,000 Pakistani rupees, 230.5 million Iranian rials, more than 135,000 Afghanis, 700 US dollars, 200 Saudi riyals and 150 Australian dollars.
'Cheque books, hawala-hundi receipts and bank deposit slips were also recovered from the suspects,' it said.
'The accused were involved in currency exchange without a license. They could not give a satisfactory answer to the authorities regarding the recovered currency.'
The agency said it was further investigating the arrested suspects.
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