Fake bank accounts case: NAB asked to provide copies of reference to all accused

The Accountability Court hearing a multibillion rupee fake bank accounts case on Thursday ordered National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to provide copies of the reference to all accused, including former President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. While hearing the case, Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik expressed his annoyance over delay in provision of copies to the accused persons. The judge remarked how the case will move forward when the NAB has not even provided the copies of the reference to the accused.
Zardari, Talpur and other accused persons were present in the court during the hearing. At the start of the hearing, Farooq H Naek, the counsel for Zardari and Talpur, asked whether or not the copies of the reference in the case are prepared. To this, Prosecutor NAB Usman Mirza told the court that 28 copies have been submitted in the office and it requires more time for preparation of the remaining copies. About Investigator Officer (IO) Ali Ahmed Abro of the case, he said that the IO did not appear before the court due to head injury.
The judge asked the NAB prosecutor, "Only IO is working and seeing all the matters. Do you not have team work?" The counsel for another accused, Zain Malik filed an application before the court, seeking exemption from personal appearance of his client in the case. He told the court that his client is suffering from bone marrow disease. The court approved his application.
The court was informed that another accused, Iqbal Khan Noori, had already been arrested in another reference. The Bureau has obtained his travel history and issued his arrest warrant through the Interpol, he said. About accused Azam Wazir Khan, the NAB prosecutor told the court that he (Wazir) is out of the country and the Interpol has been contacted in this regard.
The NAB prosecutor informed the court that accused Nasir Abdullah is currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is a foreign national. Naek told the court that the NAB law is not applicable on foreign nationality holders. Following the amendment in the NAB law in 2002, foreign nationality holders cannot be arrested under anti-graft law, he said.
The judge said that the point raised by Naek needs to be looked into. On this the NAB prosecutor said that the role of the accused would be looked into, as to how much his role is important in the reference. The NAB prosecutor told the court that preparation of the remaining copies would require 10 days.
The court ordered to provide the copies of reference to all the accused persons and adjourned the hearing of the case till May 21. After the distribution of paper books of the case, the court will indict the accused on the next hearing. There are a total of 30 accused including Zardari, Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Taha Raza, Anwar Majeed, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Noreen Sultan, Kiran Aman, Adeel Shah Rashidi, Muhammad Ashraf, Qasim Ali, Shahzad Ali, Sher Muhammad, Zain Malik, Iqbal Khan Noori, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain, Aslam Masood, Muhammad Arif Khan, Nassar Abdullah, Adnan Javed, Muhammad Umair, Iqbal Arian, Azam Wazir Khan, Christopher D Craz, Muhammad Nasir Sheikh, Ghanzanfar Ahsan, Sawoodi Morkas, Muhammad Raheel Mobin, and Ali Kamal Majeed.
In a brief chat after appearing before the court, when a journalist asked Zardari if NAB is going to file another case against him, the former president said, "Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah." A heavy contingent of police personnel was deployed inside and outside the Accountability Court premises as well as at all roads leading to the court to prevent any untoward incident.
Sources said that Zardari was also scheduled to appear before the NAB combined investigation team (CIT) for recording his statement on Thursday; however, his summons were postponed upon his request. They said that CIT had prepared another reference in the fake accounts case and had summoned the former president for questioning.