I think that we really need to understand the graveness of this story. Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani, two people accused of engineering the largest forex scam in recent history, are being given VIP treatment in FIA detention. This story ran this morning in The Nation and literally shocked me to the core. On one side, the Advisor to the Prime Minister on the Interior, Rehman Malik, says that they will be dealt with harshly and further arrest will be made in the forex scandal, while the FIA moves luxury beds to the detention center and the Assistant Director Legal (Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry) office has been cleared out for these “guests” of the State. It is also reported that these two individuals are getting splendid meals for the service they have done for this nation.

What is great is this line:

On the other hand the accused, involved in petty offenses, have been kept in the FIA cells with handcuffs and had to face the standard humiliation that our investigative and police forces are famous for. One of the accused commented “only God knows what treatment I am going through during interrogation on the false charges of my business partner, but on the other hand, people involved in harming the economy of the country are being kept as guests.

There is no better indictment of the kangaroo courts and justice system that plagues Pakistan.

The hallmark of any legal system is that everyone that is under arrest is treated the same, no preference to who they are, where they come from, or whose family they belong to. In Pakistan, the more damage that is done to the nation, the better the criminal’s stay in the jails. These people are accused of robbing the nation of Rs. 39 billion in foreign exchange, using a long outlawed financial system to transfer money in and out of Pakistan and doing their absolute best to cover their tracks. These are all crimes under the Pakistan Penal Code, but only for those of us who are not billionaires or related to the “powers that be (at the moment).”

I would hope that the “Friends of Pakistan” and the IMF take notice of this case and demand that the money be found, proven that is was not used to fund terrorism and returned to Pakistan PRIOR to any foreign assistance. If Pakistan gets IMF or other foreign assistance, it will meet the same fate as the Rs. 39 billion of Khanani and Kalia.

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