Daily Times

Sprouting Fake bank accounts are on everyone’s tongue from drawing rooms to street these days and the pattern and news are not stemming even after International FATF (Financial Action Task Force) warning that they view these accounts as terrorism linked.

On American pressure Pakistan was put in Grey List by Paris based FATF last year to force her away from terror financing and money laundering. If dropped to red list Pakistan will be barred from all international transactions and trade.

This also amounts to serving, international surveillance teams, sufficient reasons in a plate to put the country under sanctions. The question remains whether this was mere incompetence or part of some deliberate design?

The issue is so confusing and so rampant that country’s Prime Minister and Chief Justice has assumed upon themselves to unearth and expose the Racketeers involved in this scam.

JIT constituted by Supreme Court put the money at stake to be around Rs. 100 Billion while the Prime Minister in his hundredth day speech claimed its Rs. 375 Billion instead.

Does it make any sense for any businessman or a corrupt official to park his money in ignonimous accounts just to lose it to FIA or the Government and if it all really happened then who is controlling all this money now and where are the proofs?

it becomes difficult who to believe PM, FIA, JIT, courts or the Media.

If Prime Minister is true then simply seizing this money and debiting it all can really help Dam Fund to become a viable reality.

Although over 500 of such accounts have reportedly been discovered so far and 98 people have already been put on Exit Control List, all fingers  point towards Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal making an impression that most if not all fake Bank Accounts are being operated by their network.

So far so Good, lets dig into it a little further.

leaving aside the alleged mafia run by Zardari Group charged with laundering of  Rs 35 billion, where is the remaining Rs. 340 Billion if Imran Khan is to be believed.

where has all the money gone and how much has been debited to State Bank so far, since all the Falooda Walas, rickshaw drivers, students and all petty street vendors came voluntarily  to media to expose this viral scandal.

Nothing has come up yet as to the follow up and investigations into these paper and broadcast scandals.

Neither has any Bank been investigated, charged or for that matter fined after these drastic discoveries by FIA or State Bank for non-disclosures.

So much can happen ONLY in Payara Pakistan.

The real irony of this Drama is that every Pakistani has been made to believe that all this is true to the core. My Poor Naive countrymen who nourish on everything scandalous.

The other fact of this story is that I have personally moved a Real Fake Account for clear embezzlement  in Sindh High Court and the case has not been decided even after a decade.

what common citizenry doesn’t ‘ know that after 9/11  all scheduled banks did apply two international banking practices, KYC ( Know Your Customer ) a practice through which all relationship manager are required to know the real business and financial worth of their respective customers upon Account Opening and till the account is being maintained.

Under the second practice, all banks in Pakistan have their respective Compliance Departments comprising of 50-100 detective bankers whose Job is to monitor all transactions in their banks and raise red flag upon noticing any unusual transactions. They go Branch to Branch regularly and enforce Compliance .

I personally am a witness to the application of these practices when upon selling a property I was called in the Bank to give documentary and official proves as to the source of funds deposited.

This is a Bank’s internal audit system which is applied by Each Bank since last decade at least.

Has anyone of us really pondered who are these angels who deposited Rs. 340 Billion in Fake accounts and disclosed it to Media all within two months.This all at the age of e-banking.

Does it make any sense for any businessman or a corrupt official to park his money in ignonimous accounts just to lose it to FIA or the Government and if it all really happened then who is controlling all this money now and where are the proofs.

All these fake accounts were personal accounts and why hasn’t a single banker spoke to Media so far claiming to have detected billions of rupees transactions in their branches to claim honors of professionalism and honesty.

There is stark difference in Benami and Fake accounts, benami accounts have transactional history spanning over years through relatives friends and trusted employees of the real funds owner while fake accounts are for one or few reported transactions only,

Has media ever reported who the Faloodawala or rickshaw driver transferred over two billion rupees after a heavenly transaction in their accounts and which Banks was involved.

Has FIA, State Bank, PM’s office made any list of these 500 plus accounts and the traceability of these fake funds amounting to Rs. 340 Billion or its just in the air.

Finally, we even don’t know how these angel funds were deposited in these fake, was it over the counter cash then the ID numbers of depositors must be with the bank ( in this case why didn’t the cashier and branch manager alerted their head offices or State Bank ) and if these were through cheques /pay orders then it can clearly be traced back to the debited account and thereon, nothing of this has happened, everything is shady  to say the least.

And  we all believe it true as the major corruption scandal after the new Govt of PTI was sworn in. The timing is meticulous.

Fallodawala surfaced on 6th Oct this year, Remember.

Whatever the game plan behind drumming these so called accounts so hard might be, the planners should pay attention to the fact that in an effort earn a political penny at home, we are running the risk of loosing a pound at foreign policy front, and that too without a single day at the gym.

The writer is an APNS awarded journalist and can be reached at imranbajwa2000@hotmail.com

Published in Daily Times, December 13^th 2018.