KARACHI: A Pakistan court sentenced on Friday three illegal currency dealers to five years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on each for their involvement in unlawful foreign exchange trading.
According to a statement from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the convicted individuals include Qamar Shehzad, Muhammad Zeeshan, and Zubair Asghar. The FIA Composite Circle Sukkur had registered the case against them. The court of the First Additional Sessions Judge, Sukkur, heard the case and handed down the sentence.
During the investigation, according to the FIA statement, authorities recovered three major currencies including Pakistan rupees, US dollars and Saudi riyals from the accused.
“Authorities recovered 1 million Pakistan rupees, 20,700 US dollars, and 147,000 Saudi Riyals from them.”
Earlier, FIA along with other law enforcement agencies launched crackdown against illegal currency exchange and those involved in smuggling foreign currencies to neighboring counties including Afghanistan and Iran.
The action has supported the domestic currency strengthened against US dollar and other currencies in inter-bank and open markets in recent days.
According to State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) data, the rupee has regained a total of Rs2.43 against US dollar since launch of the crackdown on July 23, 2025 to date, closing at Rs282.5/$ in the inter-bank market on Friday compared to Rs284.9/$ on July 22, 2025.
Earlier, the rupee had lost almost Rs3 to a dollar in the prior five weeks to Rs284.9/$ on July 22, 2025 since June 1, 2025.
The FIA statement said the court ordered the recovered currency be confiscated in favour of the state.
Talking on Business Recorder on July 23, Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) chairman Malik Muhammad Bostan said he had led a currency dealers’ delegation to the Director General of Counter Intelligence (DGC) at the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan (ISI) in Islamabad.
According to an ECAP statement then, Bostan apprised the DGC about the currency smuggling to Iran and Afghanistan. “Due to higher black market rates, the supply of dollars is decreasing to legal currency dealers day-by-day,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
“On this, General Faisal Naseer [DGC] immediately ordered law enforcement agencies to crack down on currency smugglers and arrest them,” the ECAP said.
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