Park Lane case: Indictment of Zardari, other accused deferred till March 3

The Accountability Court hearing multi-billion rupees fake bank accounts case on Tuesday again deferred the indictment of former president Asif Ali Zardari and other accused in the Park Lane case till March.

The Accountability Court Judge, Azam Khan, while hearing the case deferred indictment of the accused, and ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to ensure the presence of the accused during the next hearing to be held on March 3.

During the hearing the court inquired about accused Khawaja Anwar Majid.

At this, the NAB persecutor told the court that the NAB Rawalpindi had written a letter to bureau headquarters for shifting of Majeed from Karachi to Islamabad.

Zardari is one of the main accused in both the cases but he did not appear before the court due to his poor health.

At the start of the hearing, Zardari's counsel Farooq H Naek filed an application seeking personal exemption of his client before the court and the court approved the same.

The NAB filed the Park Lane reference against Zardari and 16 other accused on August 19 before the court.

Other accused included Hussain Lawai, former president Arif Habib Bank and Summit Bank (arrested), Abdul Ghani Majeed, owner of different companies of Omni Group (arrested), Aslam Masood, chief financial officer/general manager finance in different companies of Omni Group (arrested), Khawaja Anwer Majid, owner of different companies of Omni Group (under judicial custody), Taha Raza, relationship manager at Arif Habib Bank (arrested), Farooq Abdullah, area/branch manager HBL (arrested), Sher Ali, operations manager HBL (arrested), Uzair Naeem, former AVP Summit Bank, M/s Tracom Private Limited through its GM, and Muhammad Saleem Faisal, general manager M/s Tracom Private Limited (arrested).

The court, while hearing the mega money laundering case against Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and other accused also adjourned the hearing till March 3rd.

Faryal Talpur and other accused appeared before the court and the court marked their attendance.

Naek told the court that the accused had so far not been provided with copies of supplementary reference.

At this, the court ordered to provide copies of supplementary reference to all the accused.

The judge asked about the status of plea bargain of accused Zain Malik.

The IO told the court that the accused Malik wanted plea bargain in all the cases.

The NAB is collecting details of Malik's cases with respect to plea bargain, he said.

In the supplementary reference regarding mega money laundering case the NAB has nominated Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majid, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Taha Raza, Arif Khan, Muhammad Umair, Syed Hussain Failsal Shah Jamote, Azam Wazir Khan, Nimr Majid, Mustafa Z Majid, Ali Kemal Malik, M Younas Kudwavi, Zain Malik, Haji Haroon, Khawaja Muhammad Salman Younus, Pir Darvesh Khan, Imran Khan, Muhammad Aurangzeb and Bilal Shaikh.

In the interim reference, the NAB has a total of 30 accused including Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal 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.

During the hearing, the court observed that the NAB had not submitted its reply about Talpur application seeking unfreezing of her accounts.

The NAB prosecutor requested the accountability court to grant time for the submission of its answer. The court approved the NAB plea.

Talpur had taken the stance in her application that no charges have been proven against her till date therefore her bank accounts should be unfrozen.