ISLAMABAD: An accountability court has summoned Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari and 17 others on August 19 in the Park Lane reference.
The notices were issued by judge Muhammad Bashir on Wednesday, days after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) formally filed the Park Lane reference against the former president.
Friday’s reference, which was approved by the bureau’s chairman earlier this month, also nominated 17 others in addition to the former president, who is already in NAB detention in the fake accounts case. It is newsworthy to mention that the PPP leader is already in the custody of the NAB in the Park Lane case.
During the executive board meeting of the bureau, the NAB chief had consented to file the reference, against the PPP co-chairman, which incurred the loss of Rs3.77 billion to the national exchequer.
As per the prosecution, the Park Lane case is being investigated under different sections of NAO 1999 and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 for Zardari’s alleged involvement “in extending the loan and its misappropriation by M/S Parthenon Private Limited, M/S Park Lane Estate Private Limited and others”.
A loan worth Rs1.5 billion was taken out from the bank and transferred to the company account in a private bank. It has also been revealed that he had forged documents to comply with the loan policy and coaxed the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) into loan approval.
