Names of 'bigwigs' figure in Pak money scam: Pak PM's interior adviser

Islamabad, Dec 5 : Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's Adviser on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik, has said that the government would disclose the names of all 'bigwigs' involved in the country's biggest financial scam.

"Names of some important personalities are also coming up in investigation and they will also be disclosed when time comes," Malik said.

Pointing that some top politicians and bureaucrats might be involved in sending money aboard through illegal channels, he said, "Anyone involved in the scam will be taken to task."

He further said that eleven cases had already been registered - two each in FIA's Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi zones and five in the Peshawar zone. All the accused, including Rustam Ali Khan, Tariq Mehmood, Javed Khanani and Munaf Kalia were remanded in judicial custody, he added

The financial scam, in which over Rs104 billion has been sent abroad through Hawala, was exposed when Khanani and Kalia offices were sealed and their heads were arrested.

For links with Khanani and Kalia, Niyamat Mirza, the owner of Duniya Enterprises in Gujranwala, was also arrested.

As per investigation, so far Rs104 billion had been transmitted through Hawala in 543,510 transactions at Karachi from 2005 to 2006. Giving credit to the FIA team for deciphering information from a computer, he said that due to the action by the FIA the flow of foreign exchange had swelled by millions through official channels during the past month and the rupee had appreciated against the US dollar.

"The deciphering of a computer server by forensic experts pertaining to June and July 2008 had revealed that 34,821,427 dollars, 678,809 pounds sterling, 1,896,399 yens had been sent abroad," Dawn quoted Malik as saying. He said that foreign currency sent illegally out of Pakistan during the period amounted to 45 million dollars.

ANI