Zardari to be indicted via video link

Lawyer says PPP leader can’t appear before court because of Covid-19 outbreak and other ailments

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday decided to indict PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari via video link in the Thatta water supply reference.

Zardari’s lawyer told the court that his client was unable to participate in the proceedings of the case because of the coronavirus outbreak and other ailments.

Judge Azam Khan ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to assist the court in setting up a video link for the proceedings of the case. The court also declared Ashfaq Leghari, a co-accused in the case, an absconder and separated his case from Zardari's reference.

The judge adjourned the proceedings till August 4 and summoned Zardari and other suspects at the next hearing.

The Thatta water supply reference is part of the fake accounts and money laundering case filed by NAB against the PPP leader.

It pertains to the alleged illegal awarding of contracts to private contractors for the water scheme.

According to the reference, Harish and Company had taken a contract for water supply from the Special Initiative Department of Sindh but had not initiated any work on the project. It was further alleged that the funds had been used to meet the expenses of Naudero House.

NAB claimed that Harish and Company was the frontline firm of Zardari’s Park Lane Estate which caused a loss of Rs60 million to the national exchequer.

The bureau had nominated 15 accused in the reference including Ejaz Ahmed Khan, former secretary of the Special Initiative Department of Sindh; Hassan Ally Memon, project director/chairman of the procurement committee for the water supply scheme, Thatta; and members of the committee namely Ali Akbar Abro, Aijaz Ahmed Memon, Athar Nawaz Durrani, Abdul Haleem Memon, Mohammad Farrukh Khan, Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Siddiq Sulemani and Zeeshan Hasan Yousaf; private contractor Harish, Omni Group CEO Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed, and Menahel Majeed.

A day earlier, Zardari’s lawyer Farooq H Naek sought the dismissal of the Park Lane reference against his client.

He argued that the case was related to two companies including Parthenon Private Limited and Park Lane according to NAB documents.

The Park Lane property was mortgaged against the loan taken by Parthenon, he added.

A private bank, he added, had filed a case for recovery of the loan over non-payment.

Naek pleaded that NAB had filed a supplementary reference against Zardari on November 12, 2019. He said the default was committed by Parthenon and not by his client.

He said the registrar of any company would be responsible of default in accordance with the Company Ordinance, 1984.

Zardari's lawyer further said there was no banking complaint in the case. He contended that NAB was not authorised to move a reference for defaulting bank loans and the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the State Bank.

He said the no one had been named as accused from the banks in the NAB reference.

The NAB, he said, had accused Zardari of influencing the bank as the president of Pakistan.

“Zardari was not the director of the Park Lane company in accordance with NAB's own documents when the loan was taken,” he said.

He further argued that the NAB law did not apply in the case.

NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi said the whole management of Parthenon belonged to Park Lane, adding that the company did not even have its own office address.

He added that the company had not carried out any work except taking loans, and the money was detected in fake accounts.

“This was a white collar crime,” he added.

Naek said Zardari had resigned from Park Lane as its director in 2009 before taking the oath of the president’s office.

“My client was not a director of Park Lane when Parthenon took the loan.”