Currency Mafia In State Bank Of Pakistan?

You want to know how banks are being pressured by the government to dole out people’s savings to save stock brokers in KSE? Read this inside story.

By FARAH PAKIWALA

Monday, 10 November 2008.

KARACHI, Pakistan—We appreciate FIA’s efforts against KKI and other exchange companies involved in currency smuggling that is hurting the economy of our beloved country badly.

This is a good beginning and we lend our support to the President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, Rehman Malik, Shaukat Tarin and other FIA officials for nabbing the white color criminals.

Unfortunately, KKI officials are not alone in transferring billions of dollars out of Pakistan. Commercial bankers (as has recently been indicated by Mr. Shaukat Tarin) and the following list of officials within the State Bank of Pakistan are also part of this mafia:

Messrs. Asad Qureshi (member of a politically dominated ethnic party in Karachi), Executive Director, SBP; Najam Saqib, Senior Joint Director, SBP (ex-NAB official); Faisal, Senior Joint Director, SBP (he has already fled the country and is seeking political asylum in USA/UK); Farooq Malik, Director, SBP (main culprit in money market and T-bill manipulations; Samar Husnain, Director, Exchange Policy Department, SBP; Amir Aziz, Executive Director, SBP , Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Director, SBP (member of a politically dominated ethnic party in Karachi); Mohsin Rasheed, Senior Joint Director, SBP; Aftab Mustafa, Executive Director, SBP ; Noman Qureshi, Director, SBP; Kamran Shehzad, MD, SBP BSC ; Akhtar Javed, Senior Joint Director, SBP; Javed Ismail, Senior Joint Director, SBP; Syed Irfan Ali (ex-NAB official), Director, SBP; Syed Imran Ali (first front man for sale/purchase of shares); and Mustafa Shah (2nd front man for sale/purchase of shares).

The above mafia people have purchased millions of dollars from the open market. Their Head Asad Qureshi persuaded the Governor to supply SBP dollars at Rs.80 in the inter-bank market, and they knew that dollar would go up from there when SBP itself would be selling dollars to banks at Rs. 80. Since then dollar has shot up to Rs. 86/87 in the open market and these guys benefited in millions. The foreign exchange mafia has deliberately left certain loopholes in Exchange Companies regulations; that Government now cannot prove transfer of dollars against any exchange company under SBP regulations. But this is heartening to know that FIA has charged KKI officials under Foreign Exchange Act, 1947 instead of SBP regulations. Hence it is essential that the above named main culprits, as well as their allies at SBP should also be nabbed and asked as to why and on whose directive they did not change the Exchange Companies regulations that ultimately helped the exchange companies and banks to transfer billions of dollars out of Pakistan.

These guys are also running Real Estate mafia in SBP with Mr. Muhammad Ashraf Khan as their lead man. They have purchased real estate/agricultural land all over the country and in Dubai and also gold in collusion with banks and exchange companies. These guys have hidden/interest free credit lines from some banks/bankers. They give favors to banks/bankers by revoking/withdrawing regulatory penalties of tens of millions of rupees imposed on bankers/banks for violating SBP regulations, and by extending very low interest bearing agricultural and export credit lines through SBP’s agriculture and export credit schemes. This mafia has also been involved in stock market manipulation especially in manipulating the share prices of commercial banks (which they also regulate at SBP), as they are privy to all kinds of insider information about banks on daily basis.

Now this mafia is forcing banks to inject liquidity in the stock market or at least purchase their holdings in off-market transactions otherwise SBP will be compelled to “unleash its regulatory wrath on non-compliant bankers/banks”.

What an irony of ironies – regulators are also investors in the very companies they regulate.

Emails, computer and telephonic records of Messrs. Akhtar Javed, Javed Ismail, Syed Irfan Ali, Syed Imran Ali, and Mustafa Shah will easily expose the shares sale/purchase deals by this mafia in SBP.

We would urge the FIA and other investigation agencies to seal all the telephonic records, computer data and other records of the above individuals running real state, currency and share mafias in SBP. The evidence is so glaring that they will not need to go much deeper to nab these culprits in SBP.

One last tip: There is a sexual scandal too in this story. It involves the wife of one of the culprits with a senior official of the SBP. Names are withheld.

Editor’s Note: Heavyweight politicians and bureaucrats, the usual thieves who have been robbing Pakistan for many decades, are involved in the fraud. The FIA and other agencies need to be alert to the fact that someone will try to pay a lot of money to bury this story. This could also mean that one or more of the people involved in this story could be eliminated. This fraud is an opportunity to clean up our political and economic system and also clean up bureaucracy. Please reveal all the names and let Pakistanis decide the future of the ‘leaders’ who have stealing people’s money.

Ms. Pakiwala is a Pakistani citizen with interest in financial markets. farahpakiwala@yahoo.com