–Court rejects pleas filed by PPP leadership, Hussain Lawai and others seeking reversal of banking court’s verdict
–Bilawal says he will continue to raise issue on all platforms, demands same law for everyone
KARACHI/LARKANA: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday lashed at the biased treatment meted out to his father Asif Ali Zardari and the party leadership in the fake accounts case after the Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed the suspects’ pleas seeking reversal of a banking court’s orders to transfer the probe from Karachi to Rawalpindi.
Former president Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Abdul Gani Majeed, Anwar Majeed and Hussain Lowai had all appealed against the banking court’s ruling in the high court.
After the Supreme Court allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take charge of the case, a banking court in Karachi allowed NAB’s request to transfer the case to a Rawalpindi accountability court for trial.
The SC had also told NAB to finish the investigation within two months.
During the hearing, Zardari’s lawyer asserted there was no reason to shift the case to Rawalpindi as the apex court had only directed for further probe in the case.
To this, the court asked that if the orders had not directly been given by the Supreme Court, did the NAB chief not have the power to request a case to be moved from one court to another. In response, the counsel said the court doesn’t fall into the ambit of an accountability court. He said that the NAB chairman should have waited for a final challan to be submitted in court before handing in the application to move the case.
Counsel for Hussain Lawai said neither a trial court nor NAB chief had authority to shift a case from one court to another, adding this was the first such instance in history of the country.
If the top court had issued the order for transfer then the NAB chief wouldn’t have to request for it, the counsel said.
“The investigation officer in the case would simply have come in and said that the top court has ordered for the case to be transferred,” he added. “The banking court overstepped its powers when it transferred the case,” the counsel insisted.
‘PPP WILL CONTINUE TO RAISE ISSUE’
In a press conference in Larkana, the PPP chairperson repeated his party’s objections to the transfer of the case to Rawalpindi, saying that the rule of law should be similar for all citizens.
“Probe is conducted where the crime has been committed, he said, adding the PPP would continue to raise this “legal objection” on all platforms.
Alluding to the controversial execution of his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Rawalpindi, Bilawal said it seems an exception was being created for the Bhuttos that their trial will always be held in Rawalpindi.
“This is revenge in the garb of accountability,” he repeated an oft-repeated criticism.
He said like in the case of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, suspects should only be arrested after their conviction. Every Pakistani deserves the right to fair trial, Bhutto added.
He also rejected reports circulating regarding the alleged arrest of Owais Muzzafar alias Tappi — who is said to be the foster brother of former president Asif Ali Zardari — as “false”, saying that such news was being spread so that the government can deflect attention from the “petrol bomb”.
“I have had no contact with Owais sahib for the past one or two years but as far as I know this news was false,” he told reporters.
THE MONEY LAUNDERING CASE:
On December 24, the JIT, formed on the apex court’s orders to probe into the alleged money-laundering case, presented its 128-page final report to the court which included recommendations for filing 16 NAB references.
The report had mentioned that 29 fake accounts were identified by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which had laundered Rs42 billion, however, the team further discovered 11,500 bank accounts of 924 account holders, 59 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and 24,500 Cash Transactions Reports (CTRs). All of these details were scrutinised, besides the loan profile of 924 individuals.
The report further stated that the fake accounts were opened through the Omni Group, however, the accounts had been engaged with direct transactions with the Zardari Group, Bahria Town, Sindh government departments and certain contractors while the ultimate beneficiary of money laundering was Zardari’s family. Later, the court had ordered Zardari to submit his reply by December 31, however, during the previous hearing, extended his and his sister s interim bail till January 7.
On September 6, the SC had formed a JIT to probe into alleged mega money laundering of Rs42 billion channelled through fake bank accounts in three banks. Besides the Zardari family, several prominent individuals including former Summit Bank president Hussain Lawai and Omni Group president Anwar Majeed, have been accused in the case.
