Anwar Majeed’s bail approved on medical grounds

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted Omni group head Anwar Majeed’s bail plea on medical grounds in the fictitious bank accounts case, however, the court ordered his name be placed in no-fly list.

The apex court also asked Majeed to hand over his passport to the registrar office. On August 15, 2018, the Federal Investigation Agency had arrested Majeed outside the courtroom after then chief justice Saqib Nisar had rejected the Omni group head and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed’s pre-arrest bail.

In October 2015, the anti-corruption wing of the FIA in Karachi received a tip off of suspicious intra-bank transactions. The profiles of the account holders did not match their earnings. FIA authorities suspected that those accounts were allegedly being run by the Zardari Group and Omni Group amongst others. The case dragged on until June 2018 when the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the fake accounts and directed that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) be formed to probe the matter.

The investigation team concluded that 32 fake bank accounts were being operated by 11 fake entities to launder money from kickbacks, land grabbing and large scale misappropriation of public funds. Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are also suspects in the case.