Faryal moves SHC against banking court’s acceptance of charge sheet

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur on Monday challenged a special banking court’s acceptance of an interim charge sheet regarding the multi-billion-rupee laundering case in which she is a suspect.

Faryal stated in her petition filed to the Sindh High Court (SHC) that she and others were booked by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for money laundering, but her name does not appear in the first information report (FIR) of the case.

Her counsel said the FIA submitted an interim charge sheet in the banking court nominating Faryal as co-accused and declaring her an absconder despite the fact that she was contesting the general elections for national and provincial assembly constituencies in Nawabshah.

He said that according to the FIR, Rs15 million was deposited in M/s Zardari group’s bank account, adding that as such there are no specific allegations against Faryal in the FIR. He added that the allegations levelled against her in the money laundering case as well as the charges of fraud did not list the petitioner as a beneficiary in the FIR.

The counsel told the SHC that the FIR and the interim charge sheet were mala fide acts of the FIA in order to defame the petitioner and her brother, former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, at the time of the elections to give an edge to the PPP’s opponents.

He said the FIA and the interim charge sheet do not suggest that the petitioner has been involved in any money laundering or that she has committed the offence of forgery. The court was requested to declare the acceptance of the interim charge sheet by the banking court as illegal and to quash the FIR with regard to allegations levelled against the petitioner.

On Saturday Faryal had said that she was unable to appear before the FIA in the money laundering case and that she needed more time. Advocate Farooq H Naek said his client was busy arguing her case at the banking court, so it was not possible for her to appear before the FIA’s joint investigation team.

Naek requested for granting her more time. The authorities had listed Faryal as an absconder in their charge sheet. She obtained interim bail on Friday from the trial court hearing the case.

The banking court directed Faryal to deposit surety bonds of Rs2 million, as she was granted bail until August 16. The court had earlier considered her plea to grant her interim bail, as she feared her arrest by the FIA that had nominated her, Zardari and others as absconders in their charge sheet.

Faryal’s counsel told the banking court that a bench of the SHC’s Larkana circuit had already approved his client’s pre-arrest bail in the money laundering case. Earlier, the FIA had declared Faryal, Zardari and others absconders. Also facing charges in the case is Zardari’s close aide and former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai. The FIA had submitted an interim charge sheet against Lawai and other suspects in court, declaring more than 20 people absconders.

Another aide to Zardari, Anwar Majeed, and Majeed’s son are among the absconders in the money laundering case. Lawai and his companion Talha Raza are facing charges of corruption of around Rs35 billion and are already in detention.

Faryal, through her counsel Naek, had filed for pre-arrest bail to the SHC Larkana circuit bench, contending that the FIA had registered the case on a political basis and the move to register the case was to prevent them from contesting the elections.

The two-member bench comprising Justice Irshad Ahmed Shah and Justice Rasheed Soomro had considered the argument and accepted the pre-arrest bail appeal for six days.

In cases in which the accused is granted protective bail by the appellate court, they are made duty-bound by the court to approach the trial court before the expiration of the bail.

The attorneys for the two accused had already opposed the plea of the investigating officer at the time the two detained bankers were produced before the South judicial magistrate, terming the allegations of money laundering of around Rs35 billion as fictitious charges.

Advocate Shaukat Hayat had argued that a dormant case was reopened against Lawai without any legal justification. He also contended that Lawai had been a board director of the Pakistan Stock Exchange and his arrest had caused a very negative impact on the stock exchange.

The FIA took notice of the scam when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a “suspicious transaction report” this January regarding 10 bank accounts, reporting that over 20 unknown accounts at a private bank were opened between 2013 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.

The FIA declared Zardari and Faryal absconders in a corruption case relating to fake accounts and fictitious transactions worth Rs35 billion. The case was initially registered against Lawai and other accused bankers.

Lawai and other bankers were accused of facilitating the opening of 29 fake accounts at the Summit Bank, the Sindh Bank and the United Bank Limited, where beneficiaries of the Sindh government had deposited Rs35 billion that was subsequently transferred to different accounts.