KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted two high-powered committees to monitor disciplinary proceedings and support criminal prosecution against officials and individuals found responsible for facilitating one of the largest trade-based money laundering schemes in Pakistan’s history, a systematic over-invoicing in the imports of solar panels worth Rs 120 billion.
The move comes in the wake of a high-level review meeting in which the Prime Minister expressed grave concern over what investigators have described as a sophisticated, multi-year fraud that ran undetected from 2017 to 2022, pointing to deep systemic failures across multiple regulatory and enforcement institutions.
The first seven-member committee, headed by the Secretary of the Establishment Division, has been tasked with monitoring disciplinary proceedings against officers and employees of relevant organisations found responsible for administrative lapses or for facilitating the over-invoicing scheme.
READ MORE: ‘Money laundering’: Rs111bn penalty slapped on 13 solar firms
The committee’s mandate includes determining supervisory responsibility, identifying officials not previously covered in the inquiry committee’s report, and reviewing cases where cadre administrators conclude that no charge is made out against any officer or employee. The body has been directed to submit fortnightly progress reports directly to the Prime Minister.
The second seven-member committee, headed by the Director General of Intelligence and Investigation (I&I), Pakistan Customs, will support the investigation and prosecution of trade-based money laundering cases arising from the scandal. It is mandated to ensure that all necessary legal actions against accused persons are undertaken strictly in accordance with the law, without delay or lapse, and will also submit fortnightly reports to the Prime Minister.
In addition, Prime Minister Shehbaz has directed the Minister for Law and Justice to nominate two competent lawyers as special prosecutors to handle these cases, one each for Karachi and Islamabad.
The scheme, uncovered by the Directorate of Post Clearance Audit (PCA), involved a sophisticated network of fictitious importers and shell companies that systematically inflated the declared value of solar panel imports.
The mechanism was as brazen as it was straightforward: dummy companies imported solar panels at artificially inflated prices and then offloaded the goods in the local market at far lower actual rates, channelling the enormous price differential into illicit foreign remittances through banking channels while exploiting regulatory gaps.
Investigators during the investigation described the case as one of the most significant detections of trade-based money laundering in the country’s history, with the overvalued solar panels serving as the vehicle for the illegal transfer of funds abroad.
Following adjudication, the Customs Adjudication Authority confirmed the charges and imposed penalties amounting to Rs 111 billion on the accused entities, along with additional personal penalties. Authorities found that the companies involved were largely bogus outfits with no genuine business operations, relying entirely on fake documentation and fictitious transactions.
The Prime Minister’s intervention signals mounting pressure on the state apparatus to hold both private actors and public officials accountable. The ongoing inquiry is examining the role of government departments, financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and enforcement agencies to determine the full extent of oversight failures that allowed the scheme to persist for nearly five years.
The fact that the fraud went undetected for nearly five years has raised serious questions about the integrity and effectiveness of Pakistan’s customs, banking sector, and regulatory systems, placing the onus on the newly formed committees to deliver meaningful accountability and bring all those responsible to justice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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