Court issues charge-sheet in Park Lane case

Statement says Zardari, other accused, formed a dummy corporation for money laundering

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court has issued a 17-page charge-sheet against former president Asif Ali Zardari and 12 other accused in Park Lane case that involves allegations of misuse of authority and graft.

Islamabad Accountability Court-II Judge Azam Khan on August 10 indicted Zardari via video link from Bilawal House in Karachi. The former president as well as all the other accused had pleaded not guilty.

Earlier, Zardari –also the PPP supreme leader – had told the judge that his counsel, Farooq H Naek, could not appear in the court due to his engagement in the apex court and that the court should defer the indictment process.

He had claimed that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – the top anti-graft watchdog, which is the prosecutor in this case – had filed a “political case” against him as he in his capacity as the country’s former president introduced the 18th Amendment that gave more autonomy to provinces.

 “I have been facing such [politically motivated] allegations for the last 30 year.  Once they fail to prove their allegations, they kneel down before me to seek forgiveness,” he said.

The PPP leader spent 9 years in prison during the former PML-N government and military regime of General Pervez Musharraf but was later exonerated from all allegations.

The judge, however, had not accepted Zardari’s request to defer the indictment process and read out the charges against him and 12 other accused including Anwar Majeed, Sher Ali, Farooq Abdullah, Saleem Faisal and Muhammad Hanif.

The court had also ordered NAB to present its three witnesses – Ahsan Aslam, Nabeel Zahoor and Abdul Kabeer – along with its record on September 1.

The charge-sheet said Zardari influenced relevant authorities during his tenure as the president to get loans released to his front companies, including the Park Lane.

He allegedly got a loan of Rs1.5 billion released for another of his companies, Parthenon Private Limited, with ill intention, and the money was later transferred for his personal use through fake bank accounts.

NAB accused the former president of causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs3.77 billion through these fake bank account transactions. In its 13-page long reference, NAB alleged that the accused created benami properties through Park Lane Company using Parthenon Private Limited as the front.

Using the money acquired through loans, eight floors were constructed at the IBC Centre.

Initially, a loan of Rs1.5 billion was taken that gradually increased to Rs4 billion. Former executive director of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and two former presidents of the National Bank of Pakistan, are listed as witnesses against Zardari in this reference.

Zardari’s counsel, Farooq H Naek, had earlier requested the court that the Park Lane reference doesn’t fall under the jurisdiction of NAB as it is related to “financial law”.