Fake accounts case: Interior Ministry bars 95 individuals from going abroad

By
Azaz Syed
The Ministry of Interior has placed 78 people on ECL and 17 other on the FIA's 'stop list'. — Geo News

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Interior has barred 95 individuals from leaving the country with regard to a case pertaining to money laundering through fake bank accounts.

Of these 95 individuals, 78 have been placed on Exit Control List (ECL) and 17 on the FIA's provisional national identification list (PNIL) or 'stop list'.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari or any of his family members have not been named in the list.

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe.

The former president's another close aide and Omni Group chairman, Anwar Majeed, and his son, Abdul Ghani Majeed, were also arrested by the FIA in August. Lawai, Majeed and his son remain under custody.

Investigations so far have revealed that several ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.

The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.