KARACHI – Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister, Faryal Talpur, appeared before a banking court on Monday pertaining to an ongoing high-profile money laundering case.
Onmi Group Chairman Anwar Majeed’s three sons, Zulqurnain, Ali and Nimr, also appeared before the court in Karachi which is investigating shady transactions worth over Rs 35 billion.
Amid tight surveillance, the former president arrived at the court, however, the case was adjourned till November 13 as the concerned judge was on holiday.
The banking court had ordered all those named in the case to make an appearance. Former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majeed, Abdul Ghani Majeed and Hussain Lotha are also suspects in the case pertaining to money laundering through 29 fake bank accounts.
Zardari, Talpur and Majeed’s three sons have secured bail in the case.
The Federal Investigation Agency is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur; the PPP co-chairman’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe.
The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son, Abdul Ghani, were also arrested by FIA in August.
According to the sources close to the investigations, ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.
