Omni Group's plea to unfreeze accounts: Banking court seeks SC's advice
October 03, 2018
KARACHI: A banking court on Wednesday sought the Supreme Court's (SC) advice on Omni Group's plea to unfreeze its account.
The petition was filed in relation to a money laundering case against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. The former's close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son, Abdul Ghani, are also accused in the case.
The conglomerate had moved the court to unfreeze 19 of its accounts that were frozen at the Supreme Court's behest.
As the hearing went under way today, the banking court decided to apprise the Supreme Court regarding Omni Group's petition. The judge issued orders to send a report to the apex court on the matter.
Requesting the top court to issue its advice on the petition, the banking court ruled to not announce a verdict on the same until receiving the SC's orders.
Money laundering case
The case was initially registered in 2015 against former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, who is widely believed to be close to former president Zardari.
Later, seven individuals, including Zardari and Talpur, were said to have been found involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions which totalled Rs35 billion. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks.
Last month, Lawai and banker Taha Raza were detained and booked for allegedly facilitating the opening of 29 ‘fake’ accounts through which suspicious transactions were made to different companies, including M/s Zardari Group.
Talpur had also obtained an interim pre-arrest bail in the case in the sum of Rs2 million.
Both the siblings are facing corruption charges relating to fake accounts and fictitious bank transactions worth Rs35 billion. Both Zardari and Talpur face allegations that they had illegally channelled funds through the said accounts in connivance with the chief executive officers of major banks.
In August, the siblings had also appeared before a joint investigation team of the FIA in Islamabad to record their statement in the multi-billion rupee money laundering and fake bank accounts case open against them.
