Daily Times

Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur have been granted a 10-day bail by the Sindh High Court on Tuesday in the fake accounts case that is being probed by the National Accountability Bureau.

Both Zardari and Talpur have been ordered to submit Rs1 million as surety bonds.

A two-member bench, comprising SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh and Justice Umar Sial, heard the petition. Zardari’s counsel, Farooq H. Naek, maintained that the transfer of the case was in contradiction with a Supreme Court verdict passed in January this year.

Earlier today, the high court also heard a petition filed by former president Asif Ali Zardari challenging a court ruling that had allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to transfer the fake accounts case to Rawalpindi.

He argued that the fake accounts case did not fall under NAB’s jurisdiction as it was not related to corruption. The first information report, Naek added, did not say that the case should be investigated by NAB.

NAB had ordered Zardari and Bilawal to appear for questioning on March 20.

The former president, in his appeal filed today, argued that NAB could not interfere in the dealings of two private companies and urged the court to nullify the call up notice by the anti-corruption bureau. Zardari also requested the court to grant him protective bail.

The SHC also granted Zardari a 10-day protective bail in the Park Lane Estate Company case after hearing a petition by the former president said that he feared arrest by NAB.