KARACHI, March 15 Police investigations into counterfeit currency cases are often merely cursory, and of the over 3,000 legal cases pending in courts relating to forged currency, most are related only to the possession of said currency, as opposed to the distribution or printing of forged legal tender, Dawn has learnt.

“Of the over 3,000 cases in the courts right now related to forged currency, most are against victims of the crime,” says Khaliq-uz-Zaman Khan, the deputy director of the Federal Investigation Agency`s Crime Circle in Karachi.

Combating counterfeit currency falls under the purview of the FIA across Pakistan.

“Most of these people are charged under Section 489-C of the Pakistan Penal Code [which is related to possession],” he says. “The crime is dealt with under Section 489 (A through F) of the PPC. Sections A, B, D and E are related to the circulation and printing of forged currency. Section 489-C is merely possession, and most of the people are innocent victims.

“If you are spending your time catching these [victims], then you`re not catching those who are actually responsible,” said Mr Khan.

The FIA`s Crime Circle in Karachi currently has a three-man task force dealing with counterfeit currency, with two inspectors and a sub-inspector tasked with analysing trends in counterfeiting and studying it.

Mr Khan said the State Bank of Pakistan has set up a task force in order to combat the counterfeiting of currency. The task force falls under the director (finance) of the bank, Mr Mohammad Habib Khan, and the two agencies will share information regarding forged currency.

When contacted by Dawn, the State Bank said that its task force has “mobilised all the concerned stakeholders besides establishing a `Monitoring Cell` in SBP, as well as at other law enforcement agencies concerned. The law ministry has advised all the courts through the High Court to take expeditious disposal of the counterfeit cases and awareness programmes are arranged for cashiers and law enforcement agencies as well as for the public to recognise counterfeit banknotes.

“The instruments for recognition of genuine banknotes have been placed at SBP BSC field offices and commercial banks have been advised to display posters describing the features of genuine banknotes for the awareness of the public. The banknote security features for the public and cashiers of banks have been placed on the SBP website (www.sbp.org.pk) for general awareness of the public and banks.”

Further, Syed Wasimuddin, the State Bank`s chief spokesman, pointed out “the counterfeiting of currency is a crime punishable (by a prison term) of one to 10 years under the PPC in view of the seriousness of the nature of the crime i.e. production, possession, reproduction resembling banknotes, etc.”

`No production, mostly

circulation in Karachi`

As far as Karachi is concerned, the FIA does not currently believe there is any production of forged notes in the city. “In Karachi the main problem is of circulation, mostly of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes,” said sources at the agency.

They explained that the havens for forgers are Lahore, Peshawar and particularly Darra Adam Khel. In Lahore, Shah Alam Market and Urdu Bazaar were singled out as two areas where forgers print fake notes. “This is the main hub for counterfeiting activity in Lahore,” the sources said, “It is a hub for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations as well. But unfortunately, no police work is going on there to stop it. The forgers are all the same. The ones who illegally copy books also print currency.”

Outlining the modus operandi of people involved in printing and distributing forged currency, Deputy Director Khan said that they usually print their notes outside the city, and then look for distributors in Karachi.

“We have seen that the cases mostly involve poor Pakhtuns. But these are the circulators, not the people actually responsible for printing the money. Most of the time those people who are caught are victims, or at worst they are working for the real forgers who are running the rackets,” said Mr Khan.

“Normally these people [the forgers] don`t release information about themselves to the circulators. They meet them in public places, such as hotels, and so that becomes a dead end for our investigations,” he added.

Sources at the FIA have rued the lack of the state`s writ in the tribal areas, and said that those responsible for forged currency were taking advantage of this. “We need to go through the political agent in these areas,” they said. “The political agent will give us the machines, perhaps, but not the people. We therefore can`t do a proper operation in the tribal areas, though we can do so in the settled areas.”

They pointed out that there was a case in 1980 where staff at the Pakistan Printing Corporation (the facility where Pakistani currency is