Daily Times

An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday ruled that Asif Ali Zardari be indicted in three corruption references against him while dismissing the former president’s pleas against the cases, a private TV channel reported.

The court had reserved its decision on September 17.

According to the verdict, announced by Judge Azam Khan, Zardari cannot be acquitted in references pertaining to fake bank accounts. The accountability court also summoned all the suspects, including Zardari, on September 28.

The former president had urged the court to dismiss corruption references pertaining to money laundering, Park Lane and Thatta water supply. Zardari is facing multiple corruption cases that have stemmed from a mega money laundering scandal, which came into the limelight in 2018. The former president, his sibling Faryal Talpur and several of their business associates are being probed as part of a 2015 case regarding fake accounts and fictitious transactions -which were initially found to have totalled Rs35 billion – conducted through 29 ‘benami’ accounts in Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and UBL.

Zardari is accused of being involved “in extending loan and its misappropriation by M/s Parthenon Private Limited, M/s Park Lane Estate Private Limited and others”. His lawyer, however, has argued that the PPP co-chairperson had been a director of M/s Park Lane, but he resigned from the company in 2008 before assuming the office of the president of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on bail petition of PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah in assets beyond means reference of Rs 1.23 billion.

Former opposition leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah’s counsel Barrister Raza Rabbani informed the court that his client has been in jail for last one year and sought the court to grant him bail. Shah’s counsel requested the bench for fixing the hearing of the case in the ongoing week.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that the bail petition could not be heard this week, while next week several benches will be in Quetta. Barrister Farooq H Naik, who is also representing Khursheed Shah, asked the bench to fix the date of the next hearing of the case. “I am pleading several important cases and those court hearings also required my presence,” he informed the bench.