Fake accounts: Asif Ali Zardari to be indicted on Jan 22

PPP co-chairman has been accused of misappropriation of funds

ISLAMABAD: The accountability court of Islamabad has fixed January 22 for indictment of former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and others accused in the Park Lane and fake bank accounts references.

The Park Lane case has been registered under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.

The PPP co-chairman has been accu­sed of being involved “in ext­end­ing loan and its misappropriation by M/s Parthenon Private Limited, M/s Park Lane Estate Private Limited and others”.

NAB has alleged that the national exchequer suffered a loss of Rs3.77 billion because of the irregularities. Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan's records indicate that Zardari and Bilawal are 50% shareholders of Park Lane.

The fake bank accounts case involves alleged money laundering worth billions of rupees through 29 accounts, which were found opened in three banks — Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank Ltd.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had named Zardari, 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 2018.

The case was transferred in March 2019 from the banking court in Karachi to the accountability court of Rawalpindi for trial.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Accountability Court Judge Azam Khan conducted the proceedings of Park Lane and fake bank accounts cases.

Zardari’s sister Faryal appeared before the court while the PPP co-chairman’s counsel Farooq Naek filed a petition on his client’s behalf seeking exemption from appearance on medical grounds.

Zardari is currently in Karachi after the Islamabad High Court granted him bail in both the cases on medical grounds.

The court was informed that the National Accountability Bureau had removed the names of five suspects from the list and added nine new names in the supplementary reference.

The court issued notices to Asif Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Anwar Majeed, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Hussain Lawai, Zain Malik, Nimr Majeed, Younus Kidwai along with others and directed that they be presented during the next hearing.