Pakistan

Talpur moves IHC for unfreezing back accounts

Faryal Talpur is an accused in the fake accounts case

Our Correspondent April 24, 2020

Faryal Talpur. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur on Thursday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for unfreezing of her bank accounts to meet her personal and domestic expenses.

In a petition, she requested the court to suspend the decision of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on July 25, 2019, and the March 31 ruling of an accountability court.

The petition has been filed against the decision of the accountability court that had turned down her plea for unfreezing her accounts.

She requested the IHC to quash the decision of the accountability court and order to unfreeze her bank accounts.

Earlier, an accountability court had rejected a petition of Talpur seeking to unfreeze her personal bank account, but restored two accounts of her daughters.

Accountability Court-II Judge Azam Khan had issued the order on Talpur’s petition challenging the freezing of her account in connection with the fake bank accounts case.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had written a letter to the State Bank of Pakistan after her name surfaced in the fake accounts case.

The SBP had directed scheduled banks to freeze her accounts. Subsequently, three accounts — one in her name and two in the name of her daughters — were frozen.

According to the prosecution, the banks were asked to freeze Ms Talpur’s accounts in the fake bank accounts case involving alleged money laundering of billions of rupees through 29 accounts.

The Federal Investigation Agency had named former president Asif Ali Zardari, Ms Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, his sons and over 10 others as suspects in an interim challan filed in a banking court in August 2018.

The case was transferred to Islamabad for trial after a Karachi banking court accepted NAB’s transfer plea filed after the Supreme Court had referred a joint investigation team’s report on the fake accounts case to the bureau with a directive to investigate the matter and file references.