LAHORE – The Supreme Court will hear the money laundering case against several suspects including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur on Monday.
Advocates Sardar Lateef Khosa and Farooq H Naek will represent the former president before a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising of Justice Umar Ata Bandiyal and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
The counsels for Zardari will be handed over a report prepared by a Joint Investigative Team (JIT) into the matter at the apex court’s Lahore Registry.
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Khosa said that the court will provide the JIT report and new date for the next hearing will be announced.
Earlier this month, the Joint Investigation Team that has been investigating the fake accounts recommended a legal course against some 415 key individuals and around 172 entities allegedly involved in transactions of approximately Rs220 billion through 104 fake accounts.
While investigating these fake accounts, the JIT report also revealed a domestic worker of Zardari, with an estimated fortune of around Rs8.1 billion stashed into one of his fake accounts. Mushtaq Ahmed, 37, who once served as one of personal staff members of Zardari accumulated the wealth with Zain Malik through a joint fake account maintained in a private bank in Karachi during 2014-15, the report stated.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’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 a close aide and Omni Group chairman and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August.
Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.
The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.
