KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday granted time till Feb 15 to a prosecutor to inform it about the fate of a summary purportedly pending before the National Accountability Bureau chairman for transfer of a case pertaining to alleged fake bank accounts and Rs4.14 billion alleged money laundering from Karachi to Islamabad.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, passed this direction after a prosecutor appearing on behalf of the federal anti-graft watchdog opposed bail petitions filed by former chairman of the Pakistan Stock Exchange Hussain Lawai and another detained banker Taha Raza, who had been detained in the case since July.

Hussain Lawai and Taha Raza along with Anver Majeed, a close aide to the Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former president Asif Ali Zardari, and his sons have been booked among around several bankers and businessmen in the case pertaining to opening of around 29 fake bank accounts in the Sindh Bank, Summit Bank and United Bank Limited and subsequently laundering of Rs4.1 billion through them. Mr Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Zain Malik, the son-in-law of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, granted interim pre-arrest bail by the Karachi’s banking court are among around 17 suspects named in the scam.

Advocates Shaukat Hayat, Haider Waheed and others submitted in the petitions that the FIA had detained the former PSE chief and the other petitioners in the case, but despite the lapse of six months the investigating officer had failed to submit a final charge sheet to the banking court.

They further submitted that applications for grant of post-arrest bail to the petitioners were also filed before the trial court, but it had not passed any order on them following a restraining order passed by the Supreme Court against deciding any application that may be filed by any of the suspects.

The counsel claimed that the FIA investigating officer was deliberately not filing a final charge sheet to the trial court with mala fide intentions and ulterior motives due to which the petitioners were incarcerated in the prison for such a long period. The counsel argued that such a delay in filing the final charge sheet and prolonged detention of the petitioners violated their fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Therefore, they pleaded to the court to grant bail to the petitioners, which was their lawful right.

During Friday’s proceedings, a prosecutor appeared before the court on behalf of the NAB and filed a statement mentioning that the Supreme Court had already referred the matter of fake bank accounts and money laundering to the federal anti-graft watchdog to probe the same and complete its investigation within two months.

He further submitted that in the light of the apex court’s directive the anti-graft body was considering to get the matter transferred to Islamabad and a summary had already been sent to the NAB chairman, who being the competent authority had been requested to approve transfer of the case to the capital.

Therefore, he vehemently opposed the grant of bail to the petitioners at this stage and pleaded to dismiss their bail pleas.

To the court’s query, the prosecutor informed that the outcome on the fate of the summary was expected within one week.

The bench members asked the NAB prosecutor to make his submission in this regard in writing and also apprise the court regarding the fate of the summary purportedly sent to the NAB chief for approval on the next date of hearing and fixed the petitions on Feb 15.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2019