Daily Times

While accepting their pleas, the Islamabad High Court (IHC), on Thursday, granted pre-arrest bail to the former president, Asif Ali Zardari, and his sister, Faryal Talpur, in the mega money laundering case. The bail was granted till April 10.

A division bench, comprising of Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani, heard the petitions and ordered Zardari to submit surety bonds for bail worth Rs 1 million each on four of his petition. The bench accepted his request to submit Rs 4 million in the form of cash.

Zardari and Talpur had approached the IHC, seeking pre-arrest bail, to avoid arrest in the fake bank accounts and money laundering case.

Meanwhile, Faryal Talpur was directed to submit bail bonds worth Rs1 million.

In the identical petitions filed through their counsels on March 27, the former president and his sister alleged that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had cried of slow progress and obstruction in case proceedings before the Supreme Court instead of investigating the matter itself. The petition had

made NAB Chairman, Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, and Deputy Director, Muhammad Kamran, as respondents.

Earlier this month, a banking court in Karachi had ordered the transfer of the fake bank accounts and mega money laundering case to Islamabad.

32 people were being investigated by the FIA in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested last July in connection with the probe.

The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group Chairman, Anwar Majeed, and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August 2018.

Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made. The amount in the accounts is claimed to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes

It may be pertinent to mention that on January 7, the apex court had directed NAB to probe into the matter in two months.