ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday granted former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur pre-arrest interim bail in the fake bank accounts case.

An IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani granted interim bail to Mr Zardari and Ms Talpur against surety bonds of Rs4 million and Rs1m, respectively.

The court issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and sought a reply to the petitions filed by Mr Zardari and Ms Talpur by April 10 when the court is scheduled to resume hearing of the case.

IHC asks NAB to submit reply to petitions filed by ex-president, his sister by April 10

The petitioners’ counsel, Farooq H. Naek, requested the court to extend the interim bail at least until April 14 since he was scheduled to attend an overseas assignment in the second week of April. The bench, however, declined to change the next date of hearing.

Mr Zardari appeared in the courtroom which was packed with members of the People Lawyers Forum. A seat for him was reserved between two senior lawyers of the PPP — former chairman of the Senate Farooq H. Naek and former governor of Punjab Sardar Latif Khan Khosa.

Former chief minister of Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Raja Shakeel Abbasi and Amir Fida Paracha were also present inside the courtroom.

During the brief hearing, Advocate Naek told the court that Mr Zardari had filed four separate petitions seeking pre-arrest bail. He said that the former president was seeking bail in three inquiries in which NAB had summoned him. In the fourth petition, the former president has sought bail in the case which has recently been transferred from a banking court in Karachi to the accountability court of Islamabad.

Ms Talpur is also seeking pre-arrest bail in the case which has been transferred to Islamabad, the counsel added.

The bench granted them interim bail till April 10.

In the identical petitions filed through their counsel, Mr Naek and Javed Iqbal Wains, Mr Zardari and his sister claimed that certain authorities were behind dragging them into the controversy to defame them in public at large.

According to the petition, the Federal Investigation Agency, State Bank Circle Karachi, registered a First Information Report (FIR) alleging that a sum of Rs15 million was transferred to the account of M/s Zardari Group (Private) Limited (Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur) from an account of A-One International, sole proprietorship in the name of Tariq Sultan.

The the FIR registered on July 6, 2018 nominated 10 accused, except Mr Zardari and Ms Talpur, the petitions said, adding that Mr Zardari and his sister were implicated as accused in the interim challan filed in the banking court on July 21, 2018 with mala fide intention in which they were mentioned as absconding accused persons which led the court to issue non-bailable warrants for them.

The former president stated that at that point of time he was busy in Islamabad in connection with the elections of prime minister and speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

The petition went on to state that the Joint Investigation Team constituted by the Supreme Court in this matter recommended filing of 16 references. However, the NAB chairman filed an application under Section 16-A of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, in the banking court for transfer of the FIR and subsequently, the case was transferred from the banking court in Karachi to the accountability court of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2019