ISLAMABAD – An accountability court in Islamabad has summoned former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majeed and others, to appear before the court on April 8 in the fake accounts case.
The accused would appear before Judge Arshad Malik who had sentenced former premier Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills reference.
A banking court in Karachi had last week approved National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) plea to transfer the fake bank accounts case to the accountability court in Islamabad for trial, in a blow to Pakistan Peoples Party leader.
The registrar office of the accountability court had found that certain documents were missing from the record transferred to Islamabad, and the documents submitted were not in order.
The office had asked the Karachi court to submit the documents again following which documents were resent and accepted by the accountability court on Thursday.
Before the transfer of the case to Islamabad last week, a Karachi banking court was conducting its proceedings.
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The court would commence formal proceedings in the fake accounts case from April 8th. Earlier on March 19th, Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur secured a 10-days protective bail from the Sindh High Court (SHC).
A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh and Justice Umar Sial, heard the petition and approved the request made by the duo.
The fake bank accounts cum money-laundering probe started last year when then chief justice Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team for a thorough investigation. The case was brought to light in 2015, however, high-profile arrests were made on the directives of the former top judge.
The National Accountability Court is also investigating the case and recently it arrested former Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Secretary Aftab Memon.
Mohammad Bashir, another Islamabad-based accountability court judge, is also conducting proceedings in a related matter in which five accused namely Aftab Memon, Mohammad Bashir, Abdul Jabbar, Najam Zaman and Hassan Memon have been remanded to the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till March 28.
