ISLAMABAD, April 10: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has unearthed a counterfeiting scam and arrested 10 people, including some ex-servicemen and bankers.
A NAB official said the accused were involved in counterfeiting rupee and foreign bank notes, Pakistani and British coins, Special Savings Certificates, stamp papers, college and university degrees, answer-sheets of Punjab Public Service Commission and driving and arms licences.
Senior Investigation Officer Sahibzada Faheem Noor said at a press briefing here on Tuesday that a reference had been filed with the accountability court in Rawalpindi.
He said the accused had links with people whose names could not be disclosed at this stage.
He did not give the names of the accused but said they included bankers, ex-servicemen, ex-postal staff and businessmen.
He said the accused had been carrying out counterfeiting activities for seven to eight years in various parts of the country and five of its members were at large.
He said the NAB had carried out an operation against the gang spread from Karachi to Muzaffarabad over the past three to four months and its second phase would commence soon.
He said the main activity -- printing rupee and dollar notes -- was based in Lahore, the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr Noor said one of the arrested men had been supplying counterfeit currency to some well-known people, whose names he did not divulge.
The group’s members in Karachi were also involved in manufacturing Rs5, UAE dirham and British pound coins, which were smuggled to the Middle East through money changers, he said.
The dies and machines for making coins had been manufactured in Lahore by a group which would be arrested soon, he said.
The NAB official said the machinery and plates used for printing the fake currency notes and documents and manufacturing coins had been seized along with Special Savings Certificates worth Rs330 million. Currency paper with watermark of Quaid-i-Azam’s picture and silver thread had also been seized, he said.
He said counterfeit Special Savings Certificates were prepared under the patronage of a retired senior banker who arranged their verification and loans against them in connivance with the postal department.
He said that since the loans had been acquired from banks all over the country, the State Bank governor had been approached for details.
He said a group comprising six people, three of whom had been arrested, was involved in printing, distribution and sale of special adhesive stamps and non-judicial papers.
He said the group caused a loss to the tune of Rs20 billion to Rs25 billion to the national exchequer in one year, only on account of bogus stamps of Rs20,000 and Rs10,000 denomination.
He said the chief controller of stamps had informed the authorities that special adhesive stamps and non-judicial papers worth Rs25 billion were lying in the store and not being lifted by district revenue officers despite having placed the orders. As a result of NAB’s intervention, there had been a visible increase in the demand and in some cases districts had placed first orders of the current fiscal year, he said, adding: “This clearly shows that they were using fake stamps and papers.”
He said members of two groups based in Karachi and Lahore involved in printing educational degrees and Punjab Public Service Commission’s answer-sheets had been arrested. Hundreds of fake degrees and arms licences had been seized in Karachi and Punjab Public Service Commission’s answer-sheets in Lahore.
Answering a question, the NAB official said the accused would not be given an opportunity for plea bargain.
ISLAMABAD, April 10: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has unearthed a counterfeiting scam and arrested 10 people, including some ex-servicemen and bankers.
