Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari reached at the accountability court to appear for hearing mega money laundering case.Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari reached at the accountability court to appear for hearing mega money laundering case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials escorted the PPP lawmaker to the court.
A day earlier, Zardari withdrew his interim bail applications filed with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in three cases pertaining to the Park Lane Company, bulletproof cars and Toshakhana.
The former president conveyed his decision to withdraw his applications after he sought the permission of the bench comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani to speak in the court.
The fake accounts case history
Information regarding the fake accounts came to the fore when an intelligence agency picked up a prominent money changer in an unrelated case. In December 2015, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) began a discreet investigation into certain bank accounts through which multi-billion rupee transactions have been made.
Investigators have so far identified 29 accounts which received payments, totalling at least Rs35 billion. The probe was initially shelved but resumed almost a year and a half later with FIA’s State Bank circle initiating a formal inquiry in January 2018. By June, the FIA had several high-profile names on its list but was unable to make headway–for several reasons.
It was at his point that the Supreme Court intervened and then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the ‘slow progress’ in the money-laundering case. In July, Zardari’s close aides Hussain Lawai, Taha Raza and two others were arrested. Subsequently, the first case was registered in the mega-corruption scandal.
The then chief justice ordered the formation of a joint investigation team to quicken the pace of the investigation. The JIT identified 11,500 bank accounts and 924 account holders at the start of their investigation. After the JIT report, the names of 172 individuals were placed on the no-fly list by the interior ministry.
