ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday extended physical remand of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur, the sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, till July 8 in the fake bank accounts case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been allowed to further interrogate the PPP lawmaker for further 14 days in the case.
During the previous hearing on June 15, the court had sent Talpur to a nine-day physical remand under the custody of NAB Rawalpindi until June 24 for further interrogation into the case.
An investigation team, including female investigators, has been interrogating her at Zardari House, Islamabad, which was notified as a sub-jail by the NAB chairman earlier “for the purposes of detention of accused under the NAO, 1999”, according to a notification issued by the accountability watchdog.
The court was told that suspicious transactions of billions of rupees had been made in the bank account of the Zardari Group from the fake bank accounts, and the account had been operated by Talpur.
Moreover, she had signed for a transaction(s) in the account with the name of Owais Muzaffar, the court was told.
After appearing in the court, Talpur, while responding to a question by a reporter, had said: “I leave my case to the Almighty.”
In her reply to another question over whether she believed her arrest was made on political or accountability purpose, she had asked: “Couldn’t you comprehend my arrest was made on political purpose? Everyone knows that these arrests are political.”
According to details, she would be kept under house arrest till further orders, and the bureau has deployed female personnel at her residence.
The NAB has been investigating several corruption cases against the former president and his sister.
On the other hand, senior leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have filed an application with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to disqualify Talpur and suspend her membership of the National Assembly (NA) following the corruption charges.