Accountability court extends Zardari, Talpur judicial remand by 3 weeks

Additional evidence has been made part of case record, says NAB prosecutor

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of former president Asif Ali Zardari and Sindh lawmaker Faryal Talpur till December 17.

Accountability court Judge Muhammad Azam Khan presided the hearing of the fake bank accounts case.

Zardari could not be produced before the court whereas Talpur was brought from the Adiala Jail.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor stated that supplementary references had also been filed in the fake account case, which has 65 volumes and is currently under scrutiny.

“Additional evidence has been made part of case record whereas the number of accused remain the same,” he said.



The court also ordered the provision of copies of the supplementary references to the accused.

The fake accounts case history

Information regarding the fake accounts came to the fore when an intelligence agency picked up a prominent money changer in an unrelated case. In December 2015, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) began a discreet investigation into certain bank accounts through which multi-billion rupee transactions have been made.

Investigators have so far identified 29 accounts which received payments, totalling at least Rs35 billion. The probe was initially shelved but resumed almost a year and a half later with FIA’s State Bank circle initiating a formal inquiry in January 2018. By June, the FIA had several high-profile names on its list but was unable to make headway–for several reasons.



It was at his point that the Supreme Court intervened and then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the ‘slow progress’ in the money-laundering case. In July, Zardari’s close aides Hussain Lawai, Taha Raza and two others were arrested. Subsequently, the first case was registered in the mega-corruption scandal.

The then chief justice ordered the formation of a joint investigation team to quicken the pace of the investigation. The JIT identified 11,500 bank accounts and 924 account holders at the start of their investigation. After the JIT report, the names of 172 individuals were placed on the no-fly list by the interior ministry.