The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a pre-admission notice to former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supremo Asif Ali Zardari in a disqualification reference.
While hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leaders Usman Dar and Khurram Sher Zaman seeking Zardari’s disqualification, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that these kinds of matters should be taken to the parliament which is a proper forum for such pleas. “There are 18,000 cases pending in the court. Political fights should be fought in the parliament,” he said.
The court then deferred the hearing and issued a pre-admission notice while seeking a reply from Zardari within two weeks.
On January 21, PTI leaders had filed a reference seeking the disqualification of the former president for allegedly concealing his New York apartment in his tax returns. The PTI leaders in the petition had stated that Zardari is not ‘sadiq and ameen’ as he did not disclose his assets and hence should be disqualified under Article 62(1)(f). The petitioners alleged that the former president owns an apartment in the United States which he did not mention in his nomination papers.
Meanwhile, an accountability court on Thursday fixed for hearing the first National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference pertaining to the fake bank accounts and mega money laundering case.
Accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir issued summons to all the suspects, including former Karachi administrator Hussain Syed, and directed them to appear on April 19. Former president Asif Ali Zardari’s close aide Younas Kudwavi, four former and four current employees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) are also among those summoned. The suspects are accused of illegal allotments of land specified for welfare use.
The NAB executive board on Tuesday had granted approval for filing of the first reference pertaining to the fake bank accounts and mega money laundering case. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is investing 32 people, including former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and Omni Group Chairman Anwar Majeed, in relation to alleged money laundering through fictitious bank accounts. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July last year 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.
The Supreme Court in September 2018 had taken notice and constituted a joint investigation team to probe the matter. The JIT had filed its report and also recommended a directive for NAB to conduct a thorough inquiry. In January 2019, the Supreme Court had referred the JIT report to NAB to launch its probe and complete it within two months.
On March 15, a banking court in Karachi approved the NAB chairman’s petition and transferred the money laundering case to an accountability court in Islamabad for trial.