Money laundering case: JIT urges SC to freeze Zardari, Omni group assets

ISLAMABAD: The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing into the money laundering and fictitious bank accounts on Saturday recommended to the Supreme Court to freeze all the assets of the former president and the PPPP President Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and Zardari and the Omni group.

The case pertains to laundering of around Rs220 billion through fictitious bank accounts.

The team also recommended seizure of Bilawal House, Karachi and Lahore, and the Zardari House, Islamabad. The investigation also urged that the New York and Dubai properties owned by Zardari, along with all five plots of Bilawal House in Karachi be seized. It also recommended confiscating all the urban and agricultural lands owned by Zardari, Talpur, and the Zardari Group. The JIT also moved the apex court to order that all assets of Omni Group, including sugar mills, agricultural companies and energy companies, be frozen.

Meanwhile, Zardari and Faryal Talpur submitted their response to the Supreme Court on the JIT’s findings. “That allegations levelled in the JIT report and the executive summary filed before the SC in the captioned matter are strictly denied in toto; it is respectfully submitted that no wrongdoings were done by the answering respondents.

The innumerable documents and statements of witnesses recorded by JIT in the JIT Investigation Report No-1 to 27 were not supplied to the respondents. The JIT be directed to provide the same including JIT Report No-25.

That the JIT Report and Executive Summary are based on surmises and conjectures and are the outcome political victimisation,” read the response submitted by Farooq H. Naek, counsel for Zardari and Talpur.