LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday granted pre-arrest bail to Malik Riaz’s son-in-law Zain Malik for a week in the fake accounts case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference against Malik on Monday relating to misuse of authority in the allotment or regularisation of government land in favour of M/S Pink Residency in Karachi.
Those named in the reference are accused of misusing their authority and causing losses worth Rs2.5 billion to the national exchequer. NAB Rawalpindi, as part of its reference into the allotment of over 30 acres of land worth Rs 2.5bn, has cautioned the relevant authority to avoid any further sale or purchase of land.
On Monday, a two-judge bench of the LHC, headed by Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmed, heard the petition for pre-arrest bail.
Malik’s lawyer Azhar Siddique submitted in court that a number of inquiries have been initiated against the petitioner.
“I want to go to the relevant forums to defend my case,” Malik said in his petition, adding that he wanted pre-arrest bail because he feared NAB will arrest him.
The court approved a week-long pre-arrest bail to the petitioner.
The fake accounts case involves alleged money laundering worth billions of rupees through 29 accounts, which were found opened in three banks — Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and United Bank Ltd.
The Federal Investigation Agency had named PPP leaders Asif Ali Zardari, his sibling Faryal Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, his sons and over 10 others as suspects in an interim charge sheet filed in a banking court in August last year.
The case was recently transferred from the banking court in Karachi to the accountability court of Rawalpindi for trial.
