Zardari, Faryal’s bail extended till March 11

KARACHI: A banking court on Tuesday extended the interim bail of the former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur till March 11, seeking arguments from their lawyer on the National Accountability Bureau’s plea to transfer proceedings to an Islamabad accountability court.

Besides the siblings, former president of Summit Bank, Hussain Lawai, its vice-president Taha Raza, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, his son Abdul Ghani Majeed, Bahria Town director Zain Malik and over a dozen others are face charges of money laundering.

At the outset of hearing, the counsel for Zardari and his sister Farooq Naek moved an application before the banking court judge Tariq Mehmood Khoso stating that his client could not make it to court because he was busy with National Assembly session in Islamabad. He asked the judge to accept condonation for absence.

Meanwhile, a NAB prosecutor filed an application in the court seeking permission to move the case to Islamabad as anti-graft body’s chairman had already approved a summary for the transfer. However, the counsels for accused opposed the request citing objections over the NAB’s move. They argued that the prosecutor has failed to provide them copies of the application, as required according to the law, so they could file objections on it. Following the arguments, the judge Tariq Mehmood Khoso directed the NAB prosecutor to supply copies of the transfer application to the defence lawyers and asked them to submit their comments on it by the next hearing. The judge also asked the FIA prosecutor about the custody of an alleged key suspect, Aslam Masood, who was reportedly arrested in Saudi Arabia last month. The prosecutor told the judge that the suspect was in FIA custody on transit remand and he was being shifted from Rawalpindi to Karachi.