Money laundering, Hawala Hundi business: FIA arrests 37 accused, recovers Rs50m in December

PESHAWAR: Corporate Circle of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar has arrested as many as 37 persons for allegedly involvement in money laundering and Hawala Hundi  business during the month of December.

According to Deputy Director FIA Khawaja Hammad ur Rehman, FIA Peshawar has also managed to recover more than Rs50 million during 34 raids conducted in various cities of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including Peshawar.

Read more: FIA arrests three suspects for withdrawing others’ money from Ehsaas Programme

He said more than 100 enquiries pending for the past sometimes have also been disposed of.

However, despite the continuous efforts of the PTI government to get Pakistan out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, the global money-laundering watchdog is still keeping Pakistan on its grey list.

Read more: Pakistan should act against UN-designated terror groups to get out of FATF grey list: experts

In the last meeting of the FATF, its chief Marcus Pleyer said that Islamabad has “addressed or largely addressed” a majority of the watchdog’s conditions but that it has to complete two concurrent action plans with a total of 34 items.

The member states reviewed Pakistan’s compliance considering both action plans were agreed by Islamabad in June 2018 and February 2021. FATF president, although, lauded Pakistan’s overall performance. However, the member states decided to keep Pakistan on the list of jurisdictions under the increased monitoring till February 2022.