Zardari brought to accountability court as NAB seeks 14-day physical remand

Zardari brought to accountability court as NAB seeks 14-day physical remand

On the second day after his arrest, former President and PPP co-chair, Asif Ali Zardari, was taken to the Accountability Tribunal in Islamabad by the National Accountability Office (NAB) team, which is seeking his Actual remand.

Before he arrived at the court, a three-person team at the general hospital conducted a medical examination of the former president. According to NAB sources, Zardari was found to be suitable for physical remand.

The report was submitted to the Court of Appeal judge Mohammad Arshad Malik.

NAB sources said the agency is seeking a 14-day actual remand of the PPP co-chairman.

On Monday, after the High Court of Islamabad cancelled his pre-arrest bail in a fake bank account case, a 15-member NAB team, accompanied by the police, arrested Zardari from his residence in Islamabad.

Some party members and two children of Zardari - PPP chairman Bilawal and the youngest daughter Aseefa - left the former president from Zardari House and left the NAB Rawalpindi office in Islamabad in black bulletproof vehicles.

The arrest of the PPP co-chairman triggered a strong reaction from the opposition and sporadic protests by PPP staff across the country, mainly in Sindh governed by the party.

In blaming his father’s arrest on the “political victimization” of the PTI government, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari stated in a speech to the oppressor that it denied Article 10A of the Constitution, which guarantees a fair trial for every citizen. Right, but appeal to party members to remain calm and wait for the party’s instructions.

The main opposition PML-N questioned the time of the arrest, claiming that it was done to divert the attention of the public to the "anti-people budget prepared by the International Monetary Fund" proposed by the government today.

A NAB official told Dawn that the IHC bench also cancelled the bail of Zardari's sister, Faryal Talpur. The case was a co-defendant, but she was not arrested because she did not issue a warrant. He said that Talpur will be arrested within a day or two.

Court litigation
On Monday, the IHC court presented by Judge ICI Farooq and Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani in a brief order stated that “the immediate petition was rejected for reasons of later record and was obtained in the petitioner’s video order on March 28, 2019. Temporary bail. Memories."

The same court on March 28 has issued interim bail payments to Zardari, Talpur and other cases involving the transaction of 150 million rupees to their private company through suspected bank accounts.

The case was originally registered with the FBI and filed in the banking court in Karachi. NAB later handed over the case to the Rawalpindi board of directors.

The court was packed with several important public-private partnership leaders, including former junior ministers Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Rehman Malik, Farhatullah Babar, Latif Khosa, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar and representatives of the People's Lawyers Forum.

However, Zardari and Talpur left IHC before the order was announced.

The judges observed that the defendant was not present in the court when the decision was announced.

Zardari’s lawyer, Farooq Naek, believes that the alleged case is related to the 14 billion rupee transaction involving a false account, but the prosecution admitted that it had conducted a trading of Rs. 150 crore in the name of the Zardari Group.

Naek said that Zardari and his sister are sugar cane growers in the area who sold the crops to the Omni Group and then obtained cash through the bank. He said that Rs 150 crore is actually the payment of sugar cane they sell to the sugar factory owned by the Omni Group.

Another inspector general of NAB Jahanzeb Bharwana said that the anti-corruption agency is investigating billions of rupees through 28 bank accounts, and the investigation team requested that the defendant be supervised. He said that the NAB chairman has issued an arrest warrant for Zardari.

After the court order, NAB sent a letter to the National Assembly spokesperson informing him of the arrest of Zardari.