Zardari, Talpur’s indictment postponed again in money laundering case

An accountability court deferred former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur’s indictment once again in money laundering case, adjourned till July 29.

According to the details,  They were to be indicted on Friday in the mega money laundering reference.

The hearing adjourned without any action due to the absence of Judge Azam Khan.

However Abdul Ghani Majeed and other respondents appeared in court. The case will now be heard on July 29.

On July 6, Zardari could not face indictment in the Park Lane reference after his lawyer, Farooq H. Naek, requested the court for additional time to prepare for the case.

Former President Asif Ali Zardari requested an exemption from court appearances due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The court had earlier postponed the suspects’ July 7 indictment till July 24.

The money laundering case, which is a part of the fake account case, refers to the embezzlement of Rs4.4 billion.

NAB has accused Zardari and Talpur of owning shares of the Zardari Group, a company that received some of the embezzled funds.

It may be recalled that in October 2015, the anti-corruption wing of the Federal Investigation Agency in Karachi received a tip-off of suspicious intra-bank transactions from the Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and the United Bank Limited.

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The profiles of the account holders did not match their earnings. Federal Investigation Agency authorities suspected that these accounts were being run by the Zardari Group and Omni Group, amongst others.

Case dragged on until June 2018, when the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the fake accounts and directed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the matter.

The investigation team concluded that 32 fake bank accounts were being operated by 11 fake entities to launder money from “kickbacks, land grabbing and large scale misappropriation of public funds.”