ISLAMABAD, March 1: The National Accountability Bureau on Wednesday claimed to have unearthed two more offshore companies and a villa in Spain owned by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
A spokesman of the bureau said that judicial authorities of Spain had frozen assets of two Sharjah-based companies, Petroline and Tempo Global Gains, as well as their six bank accounts.
The villa, allegedly owned by Ms Bhutto and her three children, Bilawal Zardari, Bakhtawar Zardari and Aseefa Zardari in Playas Del Arenal, Marbella, had also been seized by the High Court of the Valencia province, the NAB claimed.
According to the NAB, the villa was valued at half a million euros.
The spokesman said Spain’s judicial authorities had taken action against Ms Bhutto after an agreement of mutual legal assistance was recently signed by the governments of Pakistan and Spain.
The Spanish court, he said, had admitted a case filed by the NAB for trial.
The NAB official said the Petroline company was owned by Ms Bhutto, former FIA director-general Rehman Malik and Hassan Ali Jafferi and was established in 2000.
The second firm, Tempo Global Gains, was also owned by Ms Bhutto and her three children and was registered in Sharjah on July 25, 2001.
The official said the two companies’ accounts in Bancaja Bank of Spain had millions of euros. Funds had been transferred into these accounts from the Union Bank of Switzerland in Zurich, Mashreq Bank in the UAE and Bank Al Habib, Zurich, he added.
The NAB spokesman alleged that funds in the frozen accounts belonged to Ms Bhutto, adding that the money had passed through many countries and banks. The accounts’ actual beneficiaries were Ms Bhutto and her three children, he added.
However, the Pakistan People’s Party rejected the NAB claims and termed it a new charade.
In a statement, PPP’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar debunked NAB’s latest move by saying it was a desperate bid by a desperate regime, after the stunning verdict by the Isle of Man High Court last month.
