Forex scam: Where are the Rs56b, asks petitioner

KARACHI: When the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) swooped in on foreign exchange companies, particularly Khanani and Kalia, it recovered 56 billion rupees. Where is this money now, asked a  man who made this question the subject of a petition.

On Wednesday, a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai ordered the FIA to record the statement of the petitioner, Haji Gul Ahmed. It ordered an investigation to be held on the basis of his statement against people involved in the foreign currency scam, no matter how influential.

The bench had earlier heard Haji Gul Ahmed, who maintains that the money was misappropriated. A report on this was submitted to a Senate sub-committee, Ahmed stated, praying the court to take this huge amount of money into its custody.

Ahmed alleges that Pakistan’s existence was endangered by the men involved in the flight of capital from Pakistan in the form of precious foreign exchange and at one time Pakistan was at the brink of financial bankruptcy due to the alleged illegal banking and foreign exchange transfers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2011.