Published on, Sept. 16 -- September 16, 2025 11:35 AM

Pakistan's latest crackdown on the black-market dollar trade is changing the way illegal money moves. The Inter-Services Intelligence met with leaders of currency exchanges in July, before a targeted offensive aimed at stopping the rupee's slide, with traders reporting immediate impact in the open market as enforcement intensified. Reuters' reporting places the intervention squarely in the security domain, echoing a 2023 playbook to curb speculative flows.

Days later, Reuters found that informal currency deals had not disappeared; they had migrated to encrypted messaging and home-delivery networks with transactions arranged via WhatsApp and similar tools.

The shift is critical becau...