SC adjourns forex scam bail hearing

KarachiThe Supreme Court (SC) adjourned on Thursday, on the request of the deputy attorney general, the hearing of the bail applications of the directors of a money-exchange company, who are facing charges for money-laundering.Hanif S Kalia, Abdul Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani are facing charges for the alleged illegal transfer of foreign exchange, evading import duties and taxes and causing colossal loss to the government in respect of foreign exchange. On July 6, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had rejected their bail applications with direction to the trial court to conclude their trial expeditiously.Deputy Attorney General Nazar Akbar sought adjournment because the special prosecutor is supposed to appear and contest the bail applications. The SC’s two member bench granted time adjourned the hearing.The applicants’ counsels, Rasheed A. Razvi and Munir A. Malik, submitted that no evidence of money-laundering had been established against the defendants who were detained for the past 10 months. They submitted that the trial court denied bail to them despite the fact that no direct complaint was filed against them by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).They said there was no physical transfer of foreign exchange from Pakistan by the petitioner and the case against them was based on malafide intentions, because the SBP as a licensee and regulatory body was not aggrieved by the activities and transactions of the petitioners. The SBP has therefore not filed any complaint yet against the petitioners’ company, they said.SHC employees petition: The SHC directed the provincial and federal law officers to file comments on a petition regarding the enhancement of judicial and utility allowance to SHC employees as being availed by employees of other high courts of the country.Unauthorised construction: The SHC directed the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) to submit an inquiry report regarding alleged unauthorised construction at Preedy Street. The court observed that merely cosmetic actions were taken against the construction in question.The KBCA counsel was also directed to submit a report regarding action taken against the builder and the architect for the violation of building rules.