ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday appealed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan for the formation of a larger bench to hear his review petition in the mega money laundering and fake bank accounts case.
The request was made as the top court heard review petitions filed by the former president, his sister parliamentarian Faryal Talpur and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, which requested the court to bar the Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) from investigating the longstanding fake accounts case.
Latif Khosa, Zardari’s counsel, argued that the matter was discussed at the full court reference of the former Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar where the attorney general (AG), Pakistan Bar Council as well as the Supreme Court gave their respective opinions on it.
The latest appealed pledged that limits should be defined to the suo motu powers thus a larger should be constituted.
“The FIA and the joint investigation team (JIT) should be refrained from probing the matter,” it further read.
On January 28, the former president and his sister filed a review petition over SC’s January 7 order in the Rs42 billion fake accounts scam. The top court has also ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to probe into the case.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Ijazul Ahsan will hear the petition.
Reportedly, the petition has urged the court to transfer the notorious case back to Sindh. Apart from that it also seeks a halt to the investigations.
The top court will also take up petitions filed by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Omni Group owner Anwar Majeed, PPP leader Saeed Ghani and others.
THE CASE
The apex court, earlier, constituted a JIT to probe the case after it took a suo motu notice over delay probe into the scam pending since 2015.
Several prominent individuals, including Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, former Summit Bank president Hussain Lawai and Omni Group’s Anwar Majeed, have been nominated in the case.
Property tycoon Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Zain, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari have also been included in the probe.
The JIT investigating the matter told the SC that a close nexus had been found between a troika of the Zardari Group, Omni Group and Bahria Town. The JIT report revealed that at least 29 bank accounts identified as fake had been used for money laundering of Rs42 billion.