ISLAMABAD: Farhat Shahzadi aka Farah Khan, a close friend of former first lady Bushra Bibi, is involved in dollar hoarding.
According to The News report, at a time when the dollar rate against the rupee was appreciating in Pakistan, Farah Khan was busy buying dollars from the market.
Farah deposited $249,650 in cash in only nine months from January to September 2021 in her foreign currency account and failed to disclose the source of funds.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also issued an inquiry notice to Farah on December 4, 2021, against hoarding a huge amount of foreign currency into her account. However, despite the the passage of more than four months, the investigation against her into the USD hoarding inquiry made no progress.
The FIA has mysteriously put the case against Farah Khan’s foreign currency hoarding on the backburner because of her close connections with high-ups.
In October 2021, the FIA served notices on 100 individuals and decided to investigate those who were allegedly involved in buying millions of dollars from different exchange companies in Lahore and hoarded the money or laundered it to other countries. Farah Khan was also one of those 100 individuals who were involved in hoarding or laundering the dollars.
The News sent a questionnaire to Director FIA Lahore Region Dr Mohammad Rizwan, to which he replied, “Notices were given to 100 individuals who purchased USD in the last two years.” When he was asked specifically about Farah Khan’s case, Dr Rizwan said, “Specific details lie with the EO. I can check during the office timing.”
Earlier, it was revealed that the wealth of Farah Khan grew exponentially within the first three years since Prime Minister Imran Khan formed his government. The total declared assets of Farhat Shahzadi grew four times from Rs231 million in 2017 to Rs971 million in 2021.
Farah also availed whitening of black money scheme (Tax Amnesty Scheme) in 2019 during PTI government and declared assets worth Rs328 million under the Tax Amnesty Scheme 2019.
