KARACHI – Sindh High Court’s Justice Sajjad Ali Shah directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director-General (DG) on Wednesday to appear before him on March 11 and bring all evidence and relevant record about the Khanani and Kalia money laundering case. On Tuesday Chief Justice Sindh High Court Mushir Alam had assigned Justice Sajjad Ali Shah to conduct an inquiry over the acquittal of the eight men accused of involvement in the money laundering case and submit a report.
The SHC CJ had initiated the probe on the directives of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who took suo motu notice after the FIA DG had raised questions over the acquittal of the accused.
On March 4, a special banking court exonerated four foreign exchange dealers and as many officials of different banks from all charges of falsification of bank accounts for the purpose of money laundering. The four foreign exchange dealers -Abdul Munaf Kalia, his brother Hanif Kalia, Javed Khanani and Atif Polani – were accused of opening bogus bank accounts with the help of bankers Masood Abbas, Syed Wajahat Ali, Tasleem Ahmed and Arif-ur-Rehman and allegedly using them for unlawful transfer of billions of dollars abroad.