ISLAMABAD: An accountability court of Islamabad on Monday extended the physical remand of former president Asif Ali Zardari for 14 days in the Park Lane case.

The National Accountability Bureau arrested Mr Zardari in the Park Lane case on July 1 while he was already in custody with the bureau’s Rawalpindi directorate in connection with the fake accounts case.

Mr Zardari was this time produced before accountability court Judge Mohammad Bashir. Last time he was produced before accountability Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik who has since been removed by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) over the leaked video scandal.

NAB had earlier arrested Mr Zardari, co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, on June 10 after the IHC dismissed his pre-arrest bail petition in the fake accounts case. The case was transferred from the banking court of Karachi to Islamabad’s accountability court on the directive of the Supreme Court.

Later on, Mr Zardari withdrew his pre-arrest bail pending before the same bench of Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani in the Park Lane, luxury and armoured vehicles cases.

Subsequently, NAB arrested Mr Zardari in the Park Lane case on July 1.

As per the prosecution, the Park Lane land case is being investigated under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, for Mr Zardari’s alleged involvement in extending loan and its misappropriation by M/s Parthenon Private Limited, M/s Park Lane Estate Private Limited and others.

The court directed NAB to produce Mr Zardari on July 29.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2019