Money-laundering case: Zardari fails to appear before FIA’s JIT

KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur on Saturday submitted a surety bond of Rs2 million for bail in money laundering case and asked for more time to appear before the FIA’s JIT.Faryal Talpur’s lawyer appeared before the joint investigation team (JIT) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), while her brother and former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari remained absent. Requesting for more time, Faryal Talpur requested for a new date to be fixed to appear before the investigation team. On behalf of Faryal Talpur, her lawyer Muzzamil Qureshi appeared before FIA’s zonal directorate to request the agency to grant his client 15 more days to appear before the JIT. He informed FIA that his client was busy in the banking court to obtain an interim bail. Asif Zardari and Faryal Talpur were summoned on Saturday to record their statements in the money laundering case. The decision was taken during an eight-hour long meeting of the team which was presided over by Dr Najaf and attended by FIA directors from Punjab and Sindh among seven officials.

The FIA had also decided to register two to three first information reports (FIRs) against the accused. Both the leaders were summoned by the agency’s commercial banking circle. The FIA had previously declared Zardari and Talpur absconders in the money laundering case.