PPP leaders granted bail by IHC and accountability court respectively
Talpur, who is a member of the Sindh Assembly and the sister of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court against surety bonds worth Rs10 million in a case pertaining to money laundering through fake accounts.
To the court’s query, NAB Prosecutor General Jahanzaib Bharwana said the accountability watchdog had finished interrogating Talpur.
The NAB lawyer further informed the court that the money transferred to Zardari Group's bank account from a fake bank account was withdrawn through a cheque signed by Talpur.
In her petition, the PPP leader had asked the court to grant her bail until the trial was completed as she had to care for her differently-abled child.
On December 11, the IHC had also granted bail to Zardari on medical grounds on two surety bonds worth Rs10 million each.
Zardari, his sister and other accused face charges of money laundering through a web of fake bank accounts and embezzlement for Park Lane Estate Pvt Ltd and Parthenon Pvt Ltd. NAB alleged that the irregularities had caused the national exchequer a loss of Rs3.77 billion.
The PPP co-chairman and his sister were taken into custody by NAB in June this year.
Separately, an accountability court in Sukkur granted bail to senior PPP leader Khursheed Shah in a case of possessing assets beyond known sources of income.
He was granted bail against surety bonds of Rs5 million.
The NAB prosecutor requested the court to extend Shah’s remand by 15 days. However, the PPP leader’s counsel told the court that NAB had failed to file a reference against his client or present any evidence against him despite the passage of 90 days.
The NAB lawyer said the accountability watchdog had prepared a reference which had evidence of Shah’s involvement in corruption worth Rs1.24 billion. The reference, he added, had been submitted to the NAB chairman.
The court granted bail to Shah and told him to appear before it when the reference was filed.
Shah was arrested by NAB’s Sukkur chapter in Islamabad in September this year.
He faces charges of transferring an amenity plot in Sukkur Cooperative Society under his name to build a bungalow, and owning hotels, filling stations and bungalows registered under the names of his frontmen and benami companies.
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