Atif Aziz Polani, allegedly involved in money laundering, was granted bail against a surety of Rs 10 million by the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday. The SHC division bench, consisting of Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa, granted the bail plea and directed the applicant to approach the trial court for further proceedings. Earlier, Polani’s counsel had argued that the prosecution has failed to establish his client’s involvement in the money laundering case.
After hearing final arguments from both the sides, the bench had reserved its judgment after the last hearing. According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Hanif Kalia among other suspects in the money laundering case had used the services of UAE’s Al-Zarooni Exchange, having Polani and another alleged accused Jawed Qasim as the focal persons to assist all such dealings. Besides, services of a number of exchange firms and agents in foreign countries were acquired that caused a loss of billions of dollars to the national exchanger as the suspects allegedly sent billions of dollars from the country in connivance with other directors and partners of exchange companies and money changers.
After the arrest of main suspects, including Mohammad Javed Khanani and Abdul Munaf Kalia – directors of Khanani and Kalia International – and Kalia group chairman Hanif Kalia, the FIA had arrested Polani for his alleged involvement in providing assistance to the suspects. A case was registered against the suspects on a complaint (118/08) lodged by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) over illegal transfer of huge sums of money abroad.
The SBP’s Exchange Policy Department had issued a licence for six years (Dec 26, 2002 to Dec 25, 2008) to the firm. From July 18, 2005 to Nov 6, 2008, 1,468,151 transactions were made, through which foreign currency worth Rs 103,849,300,144 was transferred abroad but the amount was not declared to the SBP. The FIA placed the names of 23 prosecution witnesses in the charge-sheet that included SBP Exchange Policy Department assistant director Taj Islam; M/s Mint Printers’ Mohammad Tariq; Khanani and Kalia International system administrator Mustahab Alam; FIA assistant director Haji Khan; and FIA deputy director Khaliquzzaman.
A case (76/08) was registered at the FIA’s crime circle Karachi branch against the suspects under sections 5/8, 22/23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947, read with sections 7, 8 and 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, 2007, and sections 420, 467, 471, 477-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. Another case (FIR 32/08) was registered against the suspects under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 at the FIA crime circle, Lahore.
