Anwar Majeed. PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD: Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested on Wednesday Anwar Majeed, a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari, and his sons from the Supreme Court premises after they appeared before the court in the Rs35 billion fake accounts case.
In addition, Anwar Majeed, Khawaja Niymar Majeed, Khawaja Mustafa Majeed, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Ali Kamal Majeed also appeared before the apex court.
Shahid Hamid, the counsel for the two accused, requested the three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, that his clients would cooperate with the FIA; therefore, they should not be arrested.
The chief justice; however, said that the court would neither direct nor restrain the FIA from arresting the accused.
FIA discovers another 15 fake accounts with transactions worth Rs6 billion
The FIA, he said, could take whatever steps it deemed necessary.
The bench directed the interior ministry to place the names of accused on the Exit Control List (ECL).
The accused’s counsels requested the bench to unfreeze their accounts for disbursing their employees’ salaries, but the court turned down the plea, saying that unfreezing the accounts was also FIA’s decision.
Postponing the matter pertaining to the formation of a JIT, the chief justice said the matter would be considered on August 28.
He pointed out that former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had inducted the ISI and MI officers in the earlier JIT.
Meanwhile, hearing the matter relating to giving voting rights to overseas Pakistanis, the same bench asked the attorney-general and secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to evolve a legal mechanism in this regard.
During the hearing, the chief justice asked if overseas Pakistanis get the right to vote, could they contest elections while living abroad?
Secretary ECP Babar Yaqoob said that bye elections would be held in 27 constituencies and the commission would announce the schedule today (Thursday).
He, however, pointed out that there was a need to frame appropriate rules before overseas Pakistanis could be allowed to vote.
Attorney-General Khalid Javed Khan offered his service for this purpose.
The bench will again take up the matter on Friday (tomorrow).
COMMENTS (5)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ