SC to hear money laundering case at Lahore registry on Monday
December 23, 2018
LAHORE: A three-member Supreme Court bench under Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar will hear the long-running money laundering case on Monday.
Pakistan Peoples' Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari's counsels, Farooq H Naek and Sardar Lateef Khosa, will appear before the bench, which includes Justice Umar Ata Bandiyal and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
The case will be heard at the apex court's Lahore registry.
The court, during Monday's hearing, is expected to hand over the Joint Investigative Team report to the PPP leader's legal team.
Advocate Khosa said that he can't say anything definitive on what will happen tomorrow, but as per the regular procedure the court would hand over the report and set the next hearing date.
A banking court on Friday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of former president Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur till January 7 in the ongoing money laundering case.
The JIT that has been investigating the fake accounts recommended a legal course against some 415 key individuals and around 172 entities allegedly involved in transactions of approximately Rs220 billion through 104 fake accounts.
The JIT recently observed that either the investigation would be further referred to banking courts, NAB, FIA or it was up to the apex court to decide based on the JIT findings. The report also revealed a domestic worker of Zardari, with an estimated fortune of around Rs8.1 billion stashed into one of his fake accounts. Mushtaq Ahmed, 37, who once served as one of personal staff members of Zardari accumulated the wealth with Zain Malik through a joint fake account maintained in a private bank in Karachi during 2014-15, the report stated.
The case
The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe.
The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed a close aide and Omni Group chairman and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August.
Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to sources.
The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.
