NAB files another reference in Park Lane case

Accuses former president Zardari of using fake documents to get Rs1.5b bank loan

ISLAMABAD:

The country’s prime anti-graft body has now filed a supplementary reference against former president Asif Ali Zardari in the Park Lane case, accusing him of using fake documents to get a bank loan for a dummy corporation.

Islamabad’s Accountability Court-II Judge Azam Khan on August 10 indicted the PPP supreme leader and other accused in the Park Lane reference – a case which involves allegations of money laundering and misuse of authority.

The main reference in the Park Lane case accused Zardari of influencing relevant authorities during his tenure as the president – from 2008 to 2013 – to get loans for his front companies.

The former president allegedly got a loan of Rs1.5 billion released for 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. 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 swell to Rs3.77 billion due to known payment. 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.

Now NAB’s Rawalpindi office has filed a supplementary reference accusing that the Rs1.5billion loan was acquired using fake documents. It has also nominated two officials of a private bank as co-accused.

The letters sent by the bank to Parthenon Private Limited, demanding repayment of the loan installments are attached with the supplementary reference.

It claims that Parthenon refused to repay the loan. The supplementary reference has requested the court to make new evidence, documents and witnesses a part of the main reference.

At the last hearing of the reference, Zardari, who is reportedly ill, appeared before the accountability court judge via video link from Bilawal House in Karachi. The former president had pleaded not guilty.

Earlier, Zardari 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 claimed that NAB – 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 – a decision that allegedly ruffled the feathers of powers that be.

“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 had, however, 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.