An accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday allowed Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur to travel to Karachi to attend the Sindh Assembly sessions.
During the hearing on Thursday, the judge asked Talpur if she wanted to attend the sessions of the provincial assembly after the issuance of her production orders. She replied that she wanted to attend the sessions.
Subsequently, a NAB lawyer requested the judge to grant her transit remand till July 20.
Judge Muhammad Bashir, while issuing the transit remand, directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to present her before the court on July 20 for the next hearing.
On July 8, an accountability court extended Talpur’s physical remand for another 14 days.
The sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari is one of the prime accused in the fake accounts case and will be presented before an accountability court on July 22.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), while requesting an extension in the remand of the PPP leader, stated in court that she had attended a recent Sindh Assembly session.
Faryal was arrested by the accountability watchdog a day after her brother was arrested in the fake accounts case after the Islamabad High Court rejected their bails.
FAKE ACCOUNTS 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.
