LAHORE: After the Khanani and Kalia International (Pvt) Ltd another major foreign exchange company is being investigated for its alleged involvement in what is being described as the illegal flight of capital from Pakistan.
 
The Federal Investigation Agency has written to the State Bank to immediately suspend the licence of Zarco forex for undertaking illegal transactions through hawala and hundi.

‘The Zarco, which has over 700 branches across Pakistan, owes Rs600 million to another foreign exchange company, Western Union, and its owner, Syed Lakht Hasnain, has illegally deposited over $9million with the accounts of his family members in foreign banks,’ a source in the interior ministry claimed while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

He further said that Zarco had been doing illegal transactions since February this year.

The FIA raided the firm’s offices in Lahore on Saturday and seized the record and computers besides arresting Mansoor Kanwar, the head of its IT Department.

He said the FIA could not stop its branches from doing business as it came within the ambit of the SBP.

An FIA team raided different places in Lahore to arrest Hasnain, but without success.

However, on the request of FIA, the name of Lakht Hasnain has been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL).

‘The company has made illegal transactions worth millions of rupees primarily to save 15 per cent of the foreign exchange it had to deposit with the SBP under the rules,’ the official said.
 
He said the FIA would glean more information about the illegal flight of capital once it got hold of all its record from other stations.

The investigation against Khanani and Kalia has yielded over US$ 1.2 billion so far.