Inside a rickety wooden cubical in the heart of an ancient bazaar, Mohammed Fazil unwraps a dirty cloth, revealing packets of crisp US$50 and US$100 bills.
Adjusting his turban, the Afghani customer tells the dealer to send his US$65,000 to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates -- no questions asked. The money dealer whispers a few words into the telephone. The transfer is done.
It's a routine transaction in this informal crossroads, where millions of dollars change hands each day near the stink of open sewers and horn-blaring rickshaws, just a few kilometers from the punishing civil war in neighboring Afghanistan.
For centuries, Peshawar at the foot of the Khyber Pass was a major route for traders from Central Asia and China, bearing silk, carpets and gems to India and returning with spices and cotton.
Today, that traditional role has been transformed, thanks in part to an underground economy that connects money launderers, drug barons and smugglers with banks and money agents around the globe.
Regular folks also use dealers here to send money to relatives abroad. But rules for currency transfers and taxes don't exist for the money changers of Peshawar, which makes it a paradise for shady transactions. It's tough to tell where money originates or lands.
Peshawar is a far cry from the world's glitzy financial centers.
Dealers in its currency marketplace, called Chawk-e-Yadagar, send couriers with suitcases brimming with cash to Dubai, from where the money is distributed around the world.
Old buses and cars belch clouds of black smoke past beggars, who grab at your arm. Men in traditional baggy pants and long tunics squat on the roadside to have their hair cut and faces shaven by barbers. Women stroll by in burqas that cover them from head to toe.
Most dealers at Chawk-e-Yadagar operate without government licenses.
``People prefer to transfer their money through currency dealers because they are fast, reliable and offer a better exchange rate than the banks,'' said dealer Mohammed Riaz.
Sitting cross-legged on an old carpet with a small table barely one foot high in front of him, Riaz does most of his business by phone. Nearby is a safe filled with stacks of dollars and a computer -- rare in the market -- where Riaz checks currency rates through a dial-up phone modem.
Currency rates are supplied by dealers in Karachi, the Pakistani port city, who in turn follow rates out of Dubai. But Riaz also checks rates directly from Dubai.
Few of Riaz's customers are changing money. ``Transferring money is my real work and from where I make my profit,'' he said.
The region around Peshawar, like neighboring Afghanistan, is a rugged tribal area famous for arms manufacturing and rampant smuggling.
Pakistan's military government says the underground economy costs the country billions of dollars in lost taxes and foreign exchange. They want it stopped, and have plans to regulate currency dealers, close unlicensed shops and require licensed dealers to record transactions and deposit part of daily proceeds into a state-run bank.
However, few money dealers seem worried.
``Every government makes the same statements, but nothing changes here,'' said Munir Akhar Tariq, another money dealer in Peshawar.
Part of the problem for the government is vague legislation laced with loopholes.
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