Top court adjourns bail pleas in Park Lane Tower reference

Supreme Court grants 10-day time to accused’s lawyer to present documents of mortgaged property

ISLAMABAD: The top court on Friday adjourned the hearing of bail pleas filed by two accused allegedly involved in money laundering in the Park Lane Tower reference for 10 days.

The Supreme Court’s three-member bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam heard the case.

During the course of proceedings, the counsel for the accused, Sardar Aslam, apprised the court that his clients, Iqbal Noori and Muhammad Hanif, were employees of the company while the main accused, former president Asif Ali Zardari and Abdul Ghani Majeed, in the Park Lane Tower reference had been granted bail.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor told the court that Zardari and Majeed were granted bail on medical grounds.

Advocate Aslam informed the court that NAB had recently filed an interim reference. The NAB prosecutor said that the case was still under investigation.

Aslam said the mortgaged property still existed. “The value of the property is higher than the sanctioned loan amount,” he said, adding that the high court did not take into account the value of the property.

He said NAB had admitted that both the accused were employees of the company only. The real beneficiaries were Zardari and Hussain Lawai, he added.

Justice Alam remarked not a single penny of the loan was repaid. “The purpose for taking the loan is not clear as it would not be taken for marriage.”

Justice Yahya Afridi, the other member of the bench, asked whether the accused were willing to repay the loan.

The NAB prosecutor replied that this was not a case of loan repayment but of money laundering. “The accused took an illegal loan of Rs3.77 billion,” he added.

Advocate Aslam said the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Summit Bank had filed civil cases against the accused for repayment of loan, seeking permission of the court to present the documents of the mortgaged property.

The court allowed him to submit the documents and adjourned the hearing for 10 days.

(With additional input from APP)