Security personnel stationed outside exchange companies at our request: currency trader

KARACHI: Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) Chairman Malik Bostan clarified that it was the exchange firms that requested the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir and other senior officials for the deployment of security personnel outside their office premises.

Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzbeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Bostan said on Tuesday that the request was made to counter the illicit activities of black market agents who were offering higher exchange rates for dollars to customers rather than for monitoring purposes.

ECAP chairman added that black market agents’ activities were affecting their supply of foreign currency.

“This malpractice had also led to a difference of Rs30 in the interbank and open market dollar rate, he said, emphasising that they had no objection to monitoring,” Bostan said.

He further added that a crackdown was carried out against black market agents outside the offices of exchange companies. However, he refuted reports that security personnel had been stationed inside the offices of exchange companies for monitoring.

The personnel entered the premises just to ask what the exchange rates were in different exchange companies, the currency trader said.

He reiterated that the exchange firms had demanded the task force that had been formed and it was meant to take action against the black market operators.

He noted that the dollar sold at Rs317 in the open market on Tuesday and would come down even further.

On September 5, the rupee surged in the open market, closing the gap with the interbank rate, after authorities reassured business leaders of the government’s economic agenda and efforts to curb currency speculation.

The local currency gained Rs5 against the USD in the open market and closed at Rs323 on Tuesday.