KARACHI: The interim bail of former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur was on Tuesday extended till March 11, as a banking court asked their counsel to advance arguments on the plea of the National Accountability Bureau seeking transfer of proceedings to an accountability court in Islamabad.

Former chairman of the Pakistan Stock Exchange Hussain Lawai, Taha Raza, Anwer Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed have been booked and deta­ined for their alleged involvement in facilitating around 29 fake bank accounts and laundering Rs4.14bn.

Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur, Zain Malik, the son-in-law of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, along with 14 other bankers and businessmen, have also been booked in the case.

On Tuesday, the matter was fixed before Judge Tariq Mehmood Khosa, when Ms Talpur and around 15 others appeared in court for confirmation of their interim bail. Mr Zardari was, however, not present in court.

Detained suspects, including Lawai, Raza, Mr Majeed and his son Ghani were brought from prison for the hearing.

The court asks defence lawyer to argue on NAB’s plea for case transfer to Islamabad

At the outset, senior lawyer Farooq H. Naek, counsel for Mr Zardari, moved an application stating that the former president, who is currently a member of the National Assembly, was attending the ongoing session in Islamabad. Therefore, he requested the court to exempt his client from personal appearance.

A prosecutor for NAB also moved an application under Section 16 of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, stating that the NAB chairman had already approved a summary for transfer of the case to the accountability court in Islamabad for further trial in compliance with the directives of the Supreme Court which had referred the matter to NAB from the Federal Investigation Agency.

The prosecutor asked the court to allow the application and transfer the proceedings in the present case to the accountability court in the capital.

However, defence counsel Naek opposed the plea for case transfer and said that they had objections to it, but the prosecutor had failed to provide them copies of the application, which was a mandatorily requirement under the law so that they could file their objections.

The judge directed the prosecutor to supply copies of his application to the defence counsel for the detained and other suspects to file their replies, if any, on March 11.

Till then, the court extended the interim bail of Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur and 15 others.

Meanwhile,the judge inquired from FIA prosecutor Bakhtiar Channa about the custody of key suspect Mohammad Aslam Masood, who was reportedly arrested in Saudi Arabia last month and brought to the country.

The prosecutor informed the court that the FIA had obta­in­ed his six-day transitory remand from a Rawalpindi court, adding that he would be flown to Karachi today (Tuesday) and produced in court on the next date.

On the last date, the suspect was not produced due to “his poor health in custody” and his medical report was submitted to the court.

FIA detained Lawai and Raza in July for allegedly facilitating opening of 29 ‘fake’ bank accounts in three private banks. A case was later registered against all the suspects.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2019