Practice Area

White-Collar Crime & Investigations

We defend companies, directors, and public figures in Pakistan's most serious financial-crime matters — from the first knock of an investigation to the final court of appeal. The earlier we are called, the more we can do.

The decisive phase of a financial-crime case in Pakistan is the one without a courtroom. By the time a reference is filed or an FIR registered, the record has largely been built — in responses to call-up notices, in statements given at the agency, in documents handed over without a fight. We are built for that phase. We answer the first notice as carefully as a final appeal, because in our experience it usually becomes one.

These cases rarely run on a single track. A NAB inquiry brings an FIA angle; a banking offence brings an SECP or State Bank inquiry; all of them bring attachment, travel restrictions, and the press. We run the tracks as one case, with one theory, so that a concession made in the quiet forum does not detonate in the loud one. Where the client is a company rather than a person, we add the board's questions to the list: what to investigate, what to disclose, and whom to protect.

The accountability framework described on this page has been amended, struck down in part, and restored since 2022, and it will move again. Everything here is stated as of mid-2026, and we confirm the governing text — not the remembered one — at the start of every matter.

How We Serve

When NAB, the FIA, or a provincial anti-corruption establishment arrives at an office, the first hours decide the next years. We prepare raid protocols before anything happens, and when the knock comes we attend, supervise what is seized and copied, and hold the search to the authority it actually carries. Statements are not volunteered, and privilege is asserted document by document.

We defend accused persons from the call-up notice under section 19 of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, through inquiry and investigation, to reference and trial before the accountability courts. The Ordinance has been amended and litigated heavily since 2022, and we run every case against the version of the law that actually governs it.

We appear across the FIA's circles: cases under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, banking offences tried by the special courts under the Offences in Respect of Banks (Special Courts) Ordinance 1984, and investigations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010. That includes pre-arrest bail, challenges to the FIR, and quashment where the inquiry should never have been opened.

Before or alongside any state inquiry, we conduct privileged internal investigations for boards and audit committees: document review, witness interviews, and a report the board can act on. We then advise on disclosure — to the SECP, the State Bank of Pakistan, the auditors, or the investigating agency — and on when saying less is both lawful and wise.

We contest freezing orders under section 12 of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, provisional attachment under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010, and placement on the Exit Control List under the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance 1981. Where the case crosses borders, we act on requests under the Mutual Legal Assistance (Criminal Matters) Act 2020 and respond to Interpol notices.

A white-collar case in Pakistan is tried twice: in court and on the evening talk shows. We coordinate what is said publicly with what is pleaded, so that nothing offered to the cameras is ever read back to the client in cross-examination.

Representative Matters

20—Defended a former public-sector executive in a NAB reference before the Accountability Court, — ; acquitted.NAB Defense
20—Secured pre-arrest bail and subsequent discharge for a company director in an FIA banking-offences inquiry.FIA Matters
20—Acted for a corporate group in parallel FBR and FIA proceedings arising from the same transaction set.White-Collar
20—Conducted an internal investigation into procurement irregularities for a board audit committee.Investigations
20—Challenged an asset-freezing order before the High Court in writ jurisdiction; order set aside.Constitutional