Money-laundering case against Zardari, Faryal adjourned

KARACHI: The money laundering case against former president and sitting co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Asif Ali Zardari, his sister and PPP leader Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majeed and others, was adjourned to November 13, as the judge of the special banking court was on a three day leave to Islamabad.

All the accused including Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Khawaja Anwar Majeed’s sons, Samar Majeed, Zulqairnain and Ali Majeed, Hussain Lawai, and others had appeared in the court. A PPP leader Nasir Hussain who accompanied Zardari to the court, while talking to the journalists, said the party leadership was always persecuted and faced cases but they were proved innocent.

He said once again a fake case was lodged against the PPP leaders but its fate would be the same as of those in the past. Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are on bail in the case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency. Nasser Abdullah Lootah, Aslam Masood, Nimr Majeed, Arif Khan, Adnan Javed, Mohammad Umair, Mohammad Iqbal Arain, Azam Wazir Khan, Zain Malik, Mustafa Zulqernain and others are absconders in this case. Earlier, the FIA had declared Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur as absconders in the interim charge sheet. Faryal Talpur obtained interim bail against her arrest firstly from the Sindh High Court and later from the trial court. Asif Zardari also obtained bail from the trial court. The fake accounts case revolves around a 2015 inquiry into suspicious transactions through 29 ‘benami’ accounts in different banks. Transactions were made from 16 accounts of the Summit Bank, eight of the Sindh Bank and five of the United Bank Limited. Seven individuals were found involved in suspiciously transacting Rs35 billion.

Hussain Lawai, former chairman of the Pakistan Stock Exchange and a close aide of Zardari, Chairman Omni Group of Companies, Khawaja Anwar Majeed and his brother Abdul Ghani Majeed, and co-accused Taha Raza, head of the Summit Bank’s corporate unit are under detention in the case.