ISLAMABAD: An accountability court here on Monday handed over the custody of two more accused to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a 10-day physical remand in connection with an investigation into the fake bank accounts case.

The registrar office of the accountability court, however, raised administrative objections to the money laundering case against former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur transferred to it from a banking court in Karachi.

According to sources, the record was incomplete and not in sequence and that the registrar office asked NAB to re-submit the record after removing the deficiencies.

Accountability court judge Mohammad Bashir approved the physical remand of former director of the Karachi Development Authority Najam Zaman and former director of the Special Initiative Department Hassan Ali Memon and directed NAB to produce them before the court on March 28.

Accountability court’s registrar office raises objections to banking court’s decision to transfer case against Zardari to it

Officials of the NAB’s Rawalpindi office on Sunday arrested Mr Zaman and Mr Memon in connection with an investigation into the alleged illegal award of a contract to M/s Harish and Company by the Sindh government.

According to NAB, Mr Memon is being investigated for alleged misuse of authority for favouring contractor M/s Harish in violation of rules and regulations. Mr Zaman is accused of illegally allotting plots No ST-28 and ST-28A in Clifton, Karachi, in connivance with other accused.

NAB is already investigating three other people in the fake accounts case. They are: Aftab Memon, reportedly a close aide to Mr Zardari; Mohammad Shabbir and Abdul Jabbar. The three men are on a physical remand till March 21 after which they will be produced before the accountability court.

During Monday’s proceedings, the court allowed family members of Mr Zaman and Mr Memon to meet them in NAB’s lock-up.

Transfer of Zardari’s case

The registrar office of the accountability court found that certain documents were missing and those submitted were not in order. Some documents transferred from the banking court were not even readable, the sources in the registrar office said.

The banking court had last week accepted the NAB plea to transfer the fake bank accounts case from Karachi to the accountability court of Islamabad for trial.

Last month, a NAB prosecutor had submitted a statement to the trial court on behalf of NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal, saying the investigation of the case had been transferred to the anti-graft watchdog by the apex court. Therefore, he requested the trial court’s judge to transfer the proceedings of trial in this case to the accountability court in Rawalpindi.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2019