'NABgardi': Bilawal says he knows who's behind accountability drive

PPP chairman says Bhutto's three generations had battled against the powers that be

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that he was well aware of 'forces' behind the rejuvenated accountability drive, targeting political leadership of the country.

“We have been battling against them [those pulling strings] for the last three generations and now we we've become unstoppable,” he said in a tweet on Tuesday.

Yeh jo NABgardi hai, is kay peechay ham jantay kon hain. 3 naslon say inkay maqabla kartay aien hain, ab nahi ruknay walay.

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) May 14, 2019

The statement comes hours after Bilawal’s spokesperson Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar launched an attack on the government, saying the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was targeting the PPP by becoming a tool of political victimisation of the incumbent government.

Refuting reports of noncompliance, he confirmed that the party chairman would appear before the anti-graft watchdog in Islamabad on May 17.

Bilawal and his father former president Asif Ali Zardari have been summoned in an ongoing investigation being conducted by the anti-graft watchdog. The Supreme Court forwarded a joint investigation team (JIT) report in the fake accounts scandal to NAB and directed it to probe money laundering of billions of rupees through fictitious bank accounts.

Fake accounts case: NAB summons Zardari again

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) named Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, his sons and over 10 others as suspects in an interim charge sheet filed in a banking court in August last year.

Last month, NAB filed its first interim reference in the fake bank accounts case, nominating nine accused for misuse of authority and illegal allotment of amenity plots in Karachi.

The anti-corruption watchdog’s prosecutors submitted the reference to an accountability court in Islamabad. The accused included eight senior government officials and director of a private company

In March, NAB summoned Bilawal and Zardari in a case alleging illegal transfer of forest land to Pak Lane Estate Company (pvt) Ltd.

NAB claimed that the company was illegally acquired by the former president through a front man, Iqbal Memon, in 1989. Twenty years later, Zardari and Bilawal became shareholders of the company.

Maintaining that the notice was politically-motivated, the PPP said its top leadership would appear and respond to verbal and written questions. The bureau reportedly prepared a draft of 100 questions. Zardari and Bilawal’s statement was recorded in the presence of two joint-investigation teams.