Daily Times

Former president Asif Ali Zardari submitted his reply before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in relation to the Rs35 billion money laundering scam on Wednesday.

A day after the Supreme Court ordered the names of all those connected to the accounts to be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL), the FIA constituted a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), headed by FIA Sindh chief Munir Ahmed Shaikh, to investigate the matter.

The FIA had directed the duo to appear before the team today to record their statements and explain their position on the accounts and transactions.

Two junior counsels of the former president’s lawyer, Farooq Naek, appeared before the FIA State Bank Circle and submitted his reply.

“Zardari and sister Faryal Talpur will appear before the investigators after the July 25 general election as both are contesting in the upcoming polls, the reply said.

Zardari and Talpur in their reply to the FIA stated that it was not possible to respond to queries regarding the case within a day.

“It was not possible to submit bank statements and related records pertaining to 2014 immediately.”

Asif Zardari is the president of PPP and contesting the July 25 general election from NA-213 owing to which he is busy with election campaigns, it added.

“The case pertains to 2014 and our client has been summoned in July 2018 only two weeks before the general election,” the reply read.

“To summon him right now is a violation of human rights and Article 218 of the constitution.”

Zardari Group has no relation to the investigation, it said.

Regarding Talpur, the reply stated the PPP women’s wing head is contesting the upcoming polls from PS-10, Larkana and is also busy with election campaigns due to which it is not possible for her to record her statement.

Further, it requested that she be given till July 31 to submit her reply.

Sources said that senior lawyers and PPP leaders had advised the duo not to appear before the investigation agency.

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from benami account, under which Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was also arrested earlier.

The PPP co-chairman and his sister are also among 20 suspects summoned by the Supreme Court (today) in relation to the case. Both of them had already been placed on the no-fly list.

Last week, the FIA registered a case in Karachi over a money laundering scandal of Rs35 billion said to implicate politicians, businessmen and bankers.

Since 2015, the FIA has been probing suspicious transactions made through 29 ‘benami’ accounts – 16 of which were held in Summit Bank, eight in Sindh Bank and five in UBL.

Seven individuals, including Zardari and Talpur, were said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions which totalled Rs35 billion. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks. Zardari’s close friend and Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai, along with Summit Bank’s corporate unit head Taha Raza, have been taken into FIA custody in connection with the case.

Zardari denies involvement in money laundering scam—A12

Published in Daily Times, July 12^th 2018.