ISLAMABAD: Faryal Talpur- sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, has sought more time to appear before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed to probe the siblings’ alleged involvement in money laundry.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had summoned the duo at commercial banking circle today at 11am, pertaining to their involvement in Rs35 billion money laundering scam, the agency’s officers told Geo News.
Talpur’s attorney Muzzamil Qureshi requested FIA’s zonal directorate to grant his client 15 more days to appear before the JIT, further explaining that his client busy in the banking court to obtain an interim bail.
In a new petition, Talpur has requested to reschedule her meeting with the investigation team, adding that the interim summons had illegally declared Talpur and Zardari as absconders in the case, in reference to FIA’s earlier declaration.
The FIA has launched ongoing investigation against 32 people involved in money laundering through fabricated accounts, capturing Zardari’s close aide and Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai earlier this month.
Earlier, Talpur and Zardari were scheduled to appear before the agency on July 11, failing which the date was pushed forward.
On Talpur’s visit to the baking court, she submitted bail bonds worth Rs2 million for a pre-arrest interim bail till August 6.
She had earlier obtained a six-day protective bail from the Sindh High Court (SHC) that ended today.
It is pertinent to mention here that the FIA inquire initiated when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a 'suspicious transaction report' in January this year regarding ten bank accounts.
According to the sources, 20 suspicious accounts at a private bank were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, which is referred as black money garnered from various commissions and bribes.
Despite these huge transactions, the abank authorities never reported them to the concerned authorities.
