Practice Area
Banking Offences
We defend borrowers, guarantors, directors, and bank officers in criminal proceedings arising out of lending — before the FIA, the Banking Courts, the Special Court (Offences in Banks), and the courts above them. We also handle the civil recovery suit that almost always runs alongside, because in banking matters the two files are one case.
Most banking prosecutions in Pakistan begin life as defaults. A facility goes bad, the bank files its recovery suit, and somewhere along the way the file is sent to the FIA and the default is recast as fraud. The defense starts with that history. If the transaction was a lending decision that soured — appraised, sanctioned, disbursed, and documented by the bank itself — the criminal court needs to see that record early, because the charge reads differently once the loan file is on the table.
We run the civil and criminal tracks as one matter. The written statement in the recovery suit, the reply to the call-up notice, and the bail petition must tell the same story, since each will be read against the others. Nothing is conceded in one forum that damages the client in another, and settlement — where the client wants it — is structured so that payment in the civil case actually closes the criminal one, in writing, before money moves.
Arrest risk is managed first and always. Banking allegations carry a real prospect of arrest at the enquiry stage, and the order of operations — protection, then appearance, then the merits — matters more here than in most practices. The framework described on this page, including the offences and forums under the 1984 and 2001 laws and the AML Act 2010, is stated as of mid-2026 and is confirmed at the start of every engagement.
How We Serve
Banking fraud enquiries begin with a call-up notice from an FIA Banking Circle under the Federal Investigation Agency Act 1974, usually alleging cheating, criminal breach of trust, or forgery under sections 406, 409, 420, 468, and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code. We appear with the client, prepare the written response, and manage the enquiry so that it is answered on the record rather than in the corridor. Where arrest is a live risk, protective and pre-arrest bail are sought before attendance, not after.
The Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001 gives the Banking Courts criminal jurisdiction over the offences in section 20 — including dishonestly removing or disposing of mortgaged, pledged, or hypothecated property and obtaining finance on false statements. We defend these trials, where the prosecution case is built on the loan file and the defense is built on reading it more closely than the bank did.
Offences committed in respect of banks — by officers, employees, or outsiders — are triable by the special courts constituted under the Offences in Respect of Banks (Special Courts) Ordinance 1984. We defend bank executives and counterparties in these proceedings, from challan to judgment, and we advise banks weighing whether to set the machinery in motion.
Section 489-F of the Penal Code — dishonestly issuing a cheque that is dishonoured — has become the default criminal pressure point in commercial disputes. We defend these cases, contest the element of dishonesty where the cheque was security for an obligation rather than payment, and, where the client's interest lies in settlement, negotiate and document the compromise the court will accept.
Where a lending or fraud allegation is paired with money-laundering charges under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010, the client faces provisional attachment of property, a case file seeded by suspicious transaction reports routed through the Financial Monitoring Unit, and an investigating agency chosen by the predicate offence. We contest the attachment on its own statutory timeline and defend the predicate and laundering counts together, because one rises or falls with the other.
The recovery suit under the 2001 Ordinance runs on its own clock: leave to defend under section 10 must be sought within the statutory window, and a default there can end the civil case regardless of what happens in the criminal one. We file the leave application, contest execution and auction where a decree issues, and take convictions and decrees to the High Court on appeal.
Representative Matters
- 20—Secured pre-arrest bail and subsequent discharge for a company director in an FIA banking-offences inquiry.FIA Matters
- 20—Represented a bank in private criminal complaints arising from a defaulted exposure; proceedings quashed.Banking Offences
Illustrative of the practice; matters anonymized consistent with confidentiality obligations.
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