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ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court has sentenced three men each to five years in prison for running an illegal currency exchange, the Federal Investigation Agency said on Friday, amid a widening crackdown on illegal currency trade.

Pakistan authorities have been cracking down on currency smugglers and illegal exchanges since a depreciation in worth of rupee, which fell to a 22-month low of Rs284.97 against the US dollar last month and raised widespread concerns.

The crackdown followed a meeting of Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, an official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s powerful military-run spy agency, with exchange company representatives in Islamabad on July 22.

On Friday, a local court in the southern Pakistani district of Sukkur sentenced three accused, Qamar Shahzad, Muhammad Zeeshan and Zubair Asghar, to five years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs1 million ($3,517) on each, according to the FIA.

“The accused were found involved in illegal currency exchange,” the FIA said, adding it had seized Rs1 million, $20,700 and 147,000 Saudi riyals from the accused persons.

“The court has ordered the deposit of the recovered currency in national kitty.”

Pakistan operates a multi-tiered currency market, with rates diverging between the official interbank channel, the open market, and an unregulated “grey market” where many traders and informal hawala dealers operate.

Burdened by over $58 billion in imports in the last fiscal year, Pakistan faces severe inflationary pressure whenever the dollar strengthens. The rupee has lost 2 percent of its value between January and July this year, despite Pakistan’s current account recording a surplus of $2.1 billion, according to central bank data.

On July 27, the FIA said it had arrested five suspects involved in illegal currency exchange and transfer of money in the southwestern Balochistan province that borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Officials seized 684,000 Pakistani rupees, 230.5 million Iranian rials, more than 135,000 Afghanis, 700 US dollars, 200 Saudi riyals and 150 Australian dollars during raids in Balochistan’s Quetta and Chaman.

“Cheque books, hawala-hundi receipts and bank deposit slips were also recovered from the suspects,” the FIA said.

“The suspects were involved in currency exchange without a license. They could not give a satisfactory answer to the authorities regarding the recovered currency.”

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top court on Friday turned down a plea by real estate giant, Bahria Town, that sought to stay auction of its commercial properties in an ongoing graft case that has caught widespread public attention.

The development came a day after Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) said it had auctioned three out of six properties, owned by Bahria Town and its founder Malik Riaz Hussain, saying the move was part of its efforts to recover “defrauded funds” from a court-approved plea bargain tied to a £190 million settlement with Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

The auction was held after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) this week dismissed a petition by the firm against the planned auction of its properties by the anti-corruption watchdog. The six properties up for auction include one in Islamabad and five in Rawalpindi.

NAB said the sale aims to recover unpaid amounts from the settlement deal involving Hussain, the founder of Bahria Town who has spoken publicly for months about being pressured due to “political motives” and facing financial losses as NAB opens cases against his property development projects across Pakistan.

“The decision on the stay order will not be one-sided. We will decide after hearing the other side,” Justice Aminuddin Khan, who headed a three-member Supreme Court bench, said during a hearing in Islamabad on Friday.

The six properties are among a total of eight real estate assets that Hussain previously handed over to NAB after entering a plea bargain with the watchdog.

“Now the accused says the plea bargain was not voluntary but made under pressure,” Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan noted, saying the real estate giant had filed a miscellaneous application, but its main appeals had not been fixed for hearing.

In the past, Hussain also requested the NAB chairman to cancel the plea bargain.

“After the application to cancel the plea bargain, the case has returned to its initial stage,” Justice Afghan said, adding the properties will be confiscated once the accused is convicted.

Farooq H Naik, the counsel representing Bahria Town, said the company’s request to cancel the plea bargain arrangement and the NAB reference had both been pending before courts.

Of the six Bahria Town properties up for auction, one in Islamabad and two in Rawalpindi were sold, while three remained unsold due to a lack of qualifying bids, according to NAB.

Rubaish Marquee in Islamabad fetched Rs508 million ($1.78 million), Rs20 million above its reserve price. Conditional offers of Rs876 million and Rs881.5 million were received for two corporate offices in Rawalpindi.

“NAB remains committed to transparent recovery of public funds and strict enforcement of accountability laws,” the bureau said in a statement.

The sales are part of a widening crackdown on Hussain, once regarded as Pakistan’s most influential businessman for his real estate ventures and connections with political, media and military elites.

In recent months, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has accused Hussain and Bahria Town of involvement in laundering billions of rupees, allegations they have yet to address publicly. Hussain has previously said he is facing politically motivated pressure and financial losses due to multiple NAB cases.

The controversy is closely linked to the Al-Qadir Trust case, in which former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife were accused of receiving land from Hussain in exchange for favors. Khan, who denies wrongdoing, was sentenced in January to 14 years in prison over the case.

The UK’s NCA said in 2019 that Hussain had agreed to hand over £190 million to settle a civil investigation into whether the funds were the proceeds of crime. The assets were to be returned to Pakistan, but prosecutors say Khan’s government used the money to pay fines imposed on Hussain for illegal land acquisitions in Karachi.

Hussain, who has not appeared before NAB despite multiple summons, denies the allegations and says his property empire is on the brink of collapse. In a statement on social media platform X on Tuesday, he said Bahria Town’s bank accounts had been frozen, vehicles seized, and dozens of employees detained, forcing operations to a near standstill.

Earlier this year, NAB warned the public against investing in Hussain’s new real estate venture to build luxury apartments in Dubai.