A banking court in Karachi on Monday rejected the bail application of former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai and co-accused Taha Raza in a Rs4.14 billion money laundering case.

The court had reserved its verdict on both petitions on August 18. Both suspects are currently in jail on judicial remand.

While rejecting the applications, the court observed that it could not grant the bail at this point as the suspects are currently being investigated.

Advocate Shaukat Hayat, representing Lawai, had asked the court to grant bail to his client as no material evidence had been produced by the Federal Investigation Agency against him.

However, the FIA prosecutor had vehemently opposed the bail application, submitting that fake accounts were opened and operated under the nose of Lawai, who was the then president of Summit Bank.

The prosecutor said that the suspects were allegedly involved in a “white-collar” crime that involved as many as 29 fake bank accounts. He said that the investigation agency had to probe as to why these fake accounts were operated.

The IO said that of the 29 fake banks accounts, 16 were opened in Summit Bank.

Abdul Ghani Majeed's torture application rejected

Also on Monday, the banking court rejected an application filed by Advocate Farooq H. Naek against alleged torture by FIA on his client Abdul Ghani Majeed, who is a suspect along with his father Anwar Majeed in the money laundering case.

In his order, the judge ordered the FIA to give the suspect proper time to sleep at night and if required, interrogate him during the daytime.

Naek had claimed in the application that Majeed was not allowed to sleep the whole night in custody by FIA officials who were forcing him to give a confessional statement.

He had asked the court to restrain the joint investigation team from interrogating Ghani Majeed after dusk or during the night.

Advocate Naek had also sought permission to meet his client every day for one hour till the expiry of his remand on August 24.

While talking to media representatives, he had alleged that FIA officials tortured Ghani Majeed throughout the night.