Money-laundering case: Lawyer denies Zardari’s non-bailable warrants issue

KARACHI: The special banking court hearing a Rs35 billion money laundering case has reportedly ordered the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants for several of the absconding accused, including former president Asif Ali Zardari, according to news reports.

However, Zardari’s lawyer Farooq H Naek has denied that any such warrants were issued for his client. Naek told journalists on Friday that it was Zardari’s discretion to decide whether he wanted to join the investigation or not.

But, he added, the former president has always faced the law and still he was ready to cooperate with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the money laundering case involving fake bank accounts.

The court issued the arrest warrants as a matter of routine as the FIA had already named Zardari and others including, Nasser Abdullah Lootah, Aslam Masood, Nimr Majeed, Arif Khan, Adnan Javed, Mohammad Umair, Mohammad Iqbal Arain, Azam Wazir Khan, Zain Malik and Mustafa Zulqernain as absconders in the case. The court has directed the authorities concerned to produce the absconders for a hearing on September 4.

In the hearing on Friday, the court also accepted the physical remand of Zardari’s close aide, Khawaja Anwar Majeed and his brother Abdul Ghani Majeed until August 24.

The FIA prosecutor prayed to the court to accept 14-day physical remand against the Majeed brothers for investigation, adding that they are accused of laundering billions of rupees through fake bank accounts.

However, attorney Farooq H Naek strongly opposed and prayed to the court to not hand over the custody of the two men to the FIA.

The court then extended physical remand till August 24 against the two men who were arrested on Thursday from Islamabad and were now brought to court for extending of physical remand.

As per the interim charge sheet, the FIA had named Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur as absconders, however, Talpur obtained interim bail firstly from the Sindh High Court (SHC) and later from the trial court.

The fake bank accounts case revolves around a 2015 inquiry into suspicious transactions when 29 ‘benami’ (unnamed) accounts were identified, 16 of them in the Summit Bank, eight in the Sindh Bank and five in the United Bank Limited. Seven individuals were found involved in suspiciously transacting Rs35 billion on those accounts.

Hussain Lawai, the former chairman of the Pakistan Stock Exchange and a close aide of Zardari, businessmen Khawaja Anwar Majeed and his brother Abdul Ghani Majeed, and co-accused Taha Raza are already under detention.