PESHAWAR, Feb 12: Counterfeit currency notes seized in Karachi on Wednesday were printed on paper officially used for printing money, officials of the Federal Investigation Agency said on Thursday.

The paper used for printing these fake currency notes had either been stolen from the SBP or Security Printing Corporation of Pakistan, an FIA official, Inspector Ilyas Shahid, said. "We will broaden the scope of investigation to other provinces to unearth other people involved in this illegal business," he said.

Fake currency notes, valued at Rs1.5 million, were seized on Wednesday, FIA inspector Tariq Pervez said, adding the raid was conducted jointly by Peshawar FIA's passport cell and Karachi FIA's corporate circle.

These fake currency were very close to the original ones as they had proper security thread besides having correctly placed Quaid-i-Azam's picture. There was only a minor difference of shade when compared with the original currency notes with the fake ones being slightly darker than the original ones, he added.

"Normally, good-quality counterfeit currency notes are printed in Singapore, but these notes are printed in the tribal region," he informed. Criticizing the tribal administration, he said that it had not taken any action despite having sufficient information in this regard, adding they knew the names of the accused dealing in fake currency notes in the Bara and Dara Adamkhel areas.

"In January, the FIA seized 1,200kg of hashish being smuggled from Bara to southern parts of the country and arrested the accused. The FIA provided names of the other accused belonging to the Bara area involved in drugs smuggling to the political administration to take action against them. But no action has been taken so far," Mr Tariq said.

He said that the FIA would soon nab other members of the gang involved in printing and distributing fake currency notes besides interrogating SBP officials in this regard.