Some questions about the “forex” scandal

November 11th, 2008 by Shakir Lakhani ( 2,354 Views )

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There was a time when Pakistanis were not allowed to take more than U.S. 500 out of the country. The famous bald actor “Nanna” was caught with about U.S. 5,000 at the airport. He asked the government how it could expect anyone to go abroad and spend the equivalent of only Rs. 12,500 and survive, since hotel charges in those days were three thousand rupees a night.

It was Nawaz Sharif who allowed travelers to take an unlimited amount of foreign exchange with them. The airport staff stopped searching passengers and it was a great relief to know that there was no need to conceal dollars in one’s luggage or clothes. As far as I know, this rule was still in force when I went out of the country three months back.

Now we hear (on TV channels) that a person is allowed to take out with him U.S. $ 10,000 on every trip. There are hundreds of Pakistanis who go to foreign destinations every month, so apparently quite a great deal of foreign exchange is already leaving the country. And yet the government has suddenly arrested Khanani and Kalia, the leading forex dealers in the country for arranging transfer of dollars to other countries.

The question is, why didn’t the government do anything for the past two months when the rupee was falling freely? And why does it still allow travelers to take ten thousand dollars out of the country? Why not reduce this amount, to prevent the rupee from sliding further?

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10 Responses to “Some questions about the “forex” scandal”

1

Aamir Ali
November 11th, 2008 15:19 GMT
FYI, it was never unlimited and the cap has always been at USD 10K which is also the cap within U.S. and most other countries for money that is allowed to be brought in.

It is ignorant people like yourself that are the plague of this nation–the sort that are intellectually devoid of any deep understanding but somehow find a platform to speak and are quick to default the blame on the government for no rhyme or reason, based on faulty premise and a lot of conjecture. Only difference between you and the idiots (so called “experts”) that appear on our televisions is that your post has 8 views and they get a lot more.

You will do yourself and everyone else a great favour if you stick to whatever subject matter you are qualified to speak on, if any.
2

Ahmad
November 11th, 2008 16:01 GMT
I agree with @Aamir. One should only speak about what he knows. The decieving title brought me to this post and perhaps will catch many more.
The fraud they are talking about is worth billions of dollars which can not be transfered Pakistanis going abroad. Every country puts a limit to the amount which can be taken away.
3

Kashif Aziz
November 11th, 2008 16:44 GMT
At this point, every individual going abroad is allowed to take USD 10,000 or equivalent in any other currency, with no questions asked. The point is, why government is not reducing this limit?

Hypothetically speaking, if 1,000 passengers take $10,000 a day, this means $10,000,000 (Ten Million Dollars) going out on daily basis. Multiply this with 3 months and you will get a idea of how much dollar (or foreign currency) has flown out of Pakistan.

Also, if you have a forex account in any bank in Pakistan, you can transfer any amount out of country, without taking any approval of SBP or any other authority. Why on earth this law not changed?

When the Dollar was exploited from 70 to 90 in open market, why not SBP took any action at that time? Mind you, only SBP has all the authority to initiate an investigation against Forex companies and then request FIA or other agencies to investigate on its behalf and report back to SBP. But here it seems that FIA / Rehman Malik took the action themseleves.

Another aspect of this “scandal” is involvement of NADRA employees in issuing fake ID Cards. We were made to believe that NADRA system is highly secure and fool-proof. But now we wonder that if fake IDs are so readily available to money launderers, what about terrorists and suicide bombers.
4

Shakir Lakhani
November 11th, 2008 17:00 GMT
Mr. Aamir, if the limit was always 10,000 dollars, why was there no searching of passengers at the airport? Why did the authorities never ask for declarations from travellers, which used to be the case before 1998?
5

Aamir Ansari
November 12th, 2008 00:02 GMT
Who ever is responsible, my view is that the situation was not handsomely handled. The tax payers were humiliated in front of media without having any strong and concrete evidence. The raid was made on poor and ill quality proof which will put government in hot waters if they failed to convince the court.

Furthermore, the way money changers were handled also raised lot of questions as similar treatment would have been followed for responsibles of sugar, wheat and fertilizer crises.
6

Shakir Lakhani
November 12th, 2008 14:04 GMT
Mr Aamir Ali, please carefully read today’s DAWN (US$ 4 billion sent abroad legally). You will find (in the last para), why there was no limit on taking foreign exchange out of the country.
7

najib
November 23rd, 2008 17:49 GMT
I am pakistani abroad can one of my brothers tell me how much i can take personally from pakistan to canada and how much i can transfer via bank from pakistan to canada, i dont know what are the rules now after this currency crisis.. thanks pls help.
8

Kashif Aziz
November 23rd, 2008 18:14 GMT
@Najib: From Pakistan you can take cash equivalent to USD 10,000 with you (no limit for traveler Cheques). You can transfer any amount you want from your bank account in Pakistan to any bank account in the world, provided your Pakistani account is maintained in USD or any other foreign currency.
9

Yasir Barkat
March 16th, 2009 19:20 GMT
Assalam O Alikum,

Could any one tell me that :-
How much Pakistani Rupee a person can take with him ?

If he/she is going abort… Cause you know especially if someone is going on visit … then first he covert Rupees in US $ & after coming back to Pakistan he/she need the Rupees…

Assalam O Alikum.
10

Kashif Aziz
March 16th, 2009 19:53 GMT
@Yasir: You can take PKR equivalent to USD 10,000 with you. However, it is recommended to convert them to $ or any other currency that you maybe needing during your travel, simply because here you will get better exchange rates than abroad.

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