ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has opened an investigation into a New York apartment allegedly owned by former president and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari.
Zardari has filed a request in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking pre-arrest bail in the case. The petition was filed through Zardari’s counsel Farook H. Naek Advocate in which Director General National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi and other had been named as respondents.
NAB has informed the former president, via a notice, that he had not disclosed in Pakistan that he owned the New York apartment. The bureau also pointed out in the notice that the anti-graft body could not obtain records confirming that any legal sum was sent from Pakistan to buy the flat in New York.
Zardari responded that he had requested for time so he could gather information about the property.
“There is a history of NAB targeting me,” stated the former president in the petition. “I am suffering from several ailments, and getting treatment from doctors,” he added.
Zardari requested the high court to grant him bail till the final verdict in the case, and to declare the call notice sent by NAB, illegal as there was a risk of arrest just like in the past.
Ali Zaidi shares property tax bills of Zardari’s alleged NY apartment
Federal minister Ali Haider Zaidi, in 2018, tweeted the property tax bills of a New York apartment allegedly owned by the PPP co-chairperson.
The PTI had filed a reference with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against Zardari for allegedly hiding the property in his nomination papers.
The petition was submitted by PTI’s Khurram Sher Zaman while Firdous Shamim Naqvi moved the ECP Sindh to take notice of the matter and disqualify Zardari as a member of the National Assembly. The provincial election commissioner had maintained that only the ECP Islamabad could take action over it.