FIA seizes Rs420 million in crackdown against hundi, hawala dealers in Karachi

E-Paper | April 24, 2026

FIA seizes Rs420 million in crackdown against hundi, hawala dealers in Karachi

Imran Hafeez Published April 12, 2019

FIA says "another major exchange company, similar to Khanani and Kalia International, is operating out of Dubai." ─ DawnNewsTV/File

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday confiscated Rs420 million in cash and arrested three suspects in Karachi as part of its crackdown against hundi and hawala dealers.

FIA Director Sultan Khawaja held a press conference where he said that FIA Sindh raided two centres of hundi and hawala activities, seizing hundreds of millions and detaining a trio of suspects, who were identified as Mohammad Rizwan, Kamran and Imran.

"Another major exchange company, similar to Khanani and Kalia International (KKI), is operating out of Dubai," the FIA official said, adding that the owner of the said company goes by his alias 'Rangila'.

It is pertinent to mention here that the now-defunct KKI was one of the largest and most sophisticated exchange companies in Pakistan. It infamously ran a parallel money transfer system for purposes of transferring money out of the country through illegal hundi/hawala channels.

Khawaja further said that "the illegal outflow of money from the country can be stopped by centralising the money trail."

Follow Dawn Business on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Our readers are at the heart of everything we do.
Do you have a thought to share or a way we can improve? We’d love to hear it. Reach out to us at feedback@dawn.com.

Pakistan

The endless case of Khanani and Kalia

One held in crackdown on dollar hoarding

Khanani gets 68 months in US prison

Vikas

Apr 12, 2019 09:57pm

If the Open (Black) Market rate is at least 5% higher obviously people are going to use hawala. The government either needs to devalue the Rupee's official rate to the open market rate or throw some Dollars into he market to increase supply. Obviously there are no spare Dollars to pump into the market so devaluing the Rupee to it's true value of 150 is the only solution. The government cannot force the market to sell Dollars or Tomatoes or Milk or medicines at a controlled artificial rate which is below that determined by market factors. That is a recipe for disaster.

Recommend 0

Gordon D. Walker

Apr 12, 2019 10:14pm

Kudos to F I A... Gordon D. Walker Canada

Recommend 0

Chingez Khan

Apr 12, 2019 10:35pm

Good step. Keep arresting and confiscating their black wealth. Thanks GoP

Recommend 0

Zeeshandxb

Apr 12, 2019 10:41pm

You cannot supress people on both sides. Devalue rupee constantly and then ask people not to horde dollars. I am foreseeing dollar to continue to rise until 2023 by which time rupee will fall to pkr225 plus. By this stage dollarisation of economy will be in full swing i.e. people will not deal in rupee. The only way to stop it is through foreign direct investments, gdp growth which can lead to job creation.

Recommend 0

Arshad

Apr 12, 2019 10:45pm

Well done FIA !!!

Recommend 0

Faran

Apr 12, 2019 10:47pm

This will grow as rupee slips further.

Recommend 0

Sami

Apr 12, 2019 10:57pm

Western Union is paying 135 per dollar as of 3-days ago --if street rate is 150--this is a huge difference. Why not fix that--FIA? State Bank? Someone?

Recommend 0

Jameel

Apr 12, 2019 11:09pm

@Vikas, why through dollars in the market, people living in PK should be sticking and dealing in Rs, period

Recommend 0

Justicefirst

Apr 12, 2019 11:19pm

Hawala or Hundi is mainly required to offset the price difference of imported price of any item and underdeclared invoice value for custom purposes to avoid custom duty and ST on the actual value.This difference is managed thru Hawala by importers.Everyone know in FBR what is ITP of the imported items.Confiscate goods and punish the importers as well as FBR and hawala will vanish.

Recommend 0

Rehnuma

Apr 12, 2019 11:30pm

@Vikas, Why deal in dollars when you are in Pakistan deal in rupees.

Recommend 0

Danish

Apr 12, 2019 11:34pm

Good conficate all foreign exchange. Make country without foreign excange . Allow onlyi Rs to use as a foreign exchange by carrying in suitcases.

Recommend 0

Fascist Guruji

Apr 13, 2019 12:00am

@Jameel, Since you want to 'deal only in PKR', stop importing because the breakneck speed at which PKR is depreciating means no foreign exporter to Pakistan will conclude deals in PKR as it will destroy his ability to do business. Why don't you begin this experiment by asking your 'Iron brother' China to start selling weapons & Industrial equipment in PKR instead of Dollar or Renminbi?

Recommend 0

Mahmood

Apr 13, 2019 12:03am

Pay day! This is what I call a crackdown....Nationwide, it could be several billions rupees worth!

Recommend 0

ABE

Apr 13, 2019 12:10am

The more you uncover, the more there is yet left to uncover. Consider what else we do not know yet!!

Recommend 0

Jjacky

Apr 13, 2019 12:14am

@Jameel, what is the value of pkr? All foreign payments and remittances received are in dollars.

Recommend 0

Changez Khan

Apr 13, 2019 12:56am

Good job. Get every penny out of these mafia joints.

Recommend 0

M. Afzal Riaz, MD

Apr 13, 2019 01:01am

Arrest all these dealers. Every body knows where they are? Shut them down

Recommend 0

Zak

Apr 13, 2019 01:29am

PKR will continue to fall and people will have no option but to move to US Dollars/Yuan/Gold or see their hard earned money get destroyed by rising inflation

Recommend 0

Zak

Apr 13, 2019 01:31am

To hide their failures, PTI government is doing all this.

Recommend 0

Mulani

Apr 13, 2019 02:24am

Mr. Waqas Ahmed Virk Jatt did a commendable job. We need more people like him who can take bold and stern actions against tax evaders. keep it up.

Recommend 0

Khan USA

Apr 13, 2019 02:39am

First government support these companies and then try to stop them from doing business . Does not make sense !

Recommend 0

jagmohan trivedi

Apr 13, 2019 03:06am

This nonstop devaluation of dollar is not of few months origin,it is strongly inbuilt in Pak's monetary system,that has almost allowed dual market.Why allow individual holding of dollars beyond a certain sum? Why not keep an eye on export import invoices value ? Why not allow reasonable amount of exchange to people going for Haj,Umrah or tourism? Things are workable if strict action and honesty are acted upon.

Recommend 0

Dev Mehta

Apr 13, 2019 03:24am

Pakistan is a big country with a very large number of people in Gulf looking to get maximum number of Rupees for their hard earned gulf money on a monthly basis. We are talking hundreds of billions of Rupees every month. This is just a drop in the bucket.

Recommend 0

Atif

Apr 13, 2019 03:34am

hundi has increased 10 times, because you people have made bank monsters and people are scared of it. result is infront of you. My suggestion allow banks to change foreign currency and you will thank me some day rather very soon.

Recommend 0

fairplay

Apr 13, 2019 04:15am

@Chingez Khan, how long before Zardari and gangs role is exposed. Ayyan Ali was just the beginning. The FIA actually doing something, wow!

Recommend 0

fairplay

Apr 13, 2019 04:16am

@Zeeshandxb, what degrees do you have in economics, or you are a patching pass Indian commenting. Your comments arw all anti Pakistan.

Recommend 0

fairplay

Apr 13, 2019 04:17am

@Vikas, bjp troll commenting.

Recommend 0

fairplay

Apr 13, 2019 04:18am

@Rehnuma, illegal money kept in dollars.

Recommend 0

fairplay

Apr 13, 2019 04:19am

@Sami, western Union is profit taking and ripping off users, shut it down in the country.

Recommend 0

Jameel

Apr 13, 2019 04:47am

@Fascist Guruji, well, it's all to do with mindset and perception, when choices are given than people play with mind and if there is no choice than you stick with what you got and build on it. I think PK is at the stage where they need to start nailing what they have for the better future else this money exchange and hooders will continue to ransam the country. As for the imports, you pay in the currency you use else tell them to take your BIC somewhere else, customer is always stronger than the seller. Unfortunately the problem we have is that we bend our back for the stuff we shouldn't have therefore the sellers take advantage.

Recommend 0

Jameel

Apr 13, 2019 04:58am

@Jjacky, unfortunately that's the dilemma we are in where we have immensely incompetent bureaucracy and spineless leaders, who can't even handle countries supply and demand competently. Instead they have been and are busy in filling their own coffers. And untill the message is not out, saying we're willing to deal with our currency, things we will start changing.

Recommend 0

gauhar mir

Apr 13, 2019 05:53am

Very good job by FIA. ...

Recommend 0

Apr 13, 2019 06:35am

We as Pakistanis have gotten used to of Extracting a bit more, and that is why we defend these mediums. Any good government, who is not the beneficiary of this system will try its best to stop it. If you were living in a well documented economy like UK, will you send money through a similar system, even if the rate was higher? Follow the legal system, this way you might get a bit less, but then you don’t loose the value of your money when due to low dollar reserves in the economy rupee depreciates.

Recommend 0

Yousuf47 London

Apr 13, 2019 07:59am

It is perhaps a step in the right direction, but it is the next step that never happens as it never reaches to its natural conclusion. No one is wiser about earlier cache of money and gold seized from Politicians home in Sindh and remained confiscated or was deposited in a designated account controlled by the Federal Government or the Provincial Government. The people have become immune to such statements as nothing in Pakistan proceeds beyond wild claims.

Recommend 0

Javed

Apr 13, 2019 08:07am

All these actions by law enforcement have no legal basis and will not stand in court.

Recommend 0

Sabeeh ahmad

Apr 13, 2019 09:14am

These unofficial hawalas and hundi should be stopped and open market usd $ rate will automatically comes down.

Recommend 0

Ilyas

Apr 13, 2019 09:35am

Exchange Companies are regulated by State Bank of Pakistan. These companies along with commercial banks are inspected by SBP inspectors. This is a complete failure of the regulator as despite having regular audits and inspections, they are unable to report this illegal activity. SBP should be made accountable for this as well.

Recommend 0