Park Lane case: AC tells NAB to fix technical error in supplementary reference

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court Wednesday returned the supplementary reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in connection with the Park Lane case against former president Asif Ali Zardari and others, asking the anti-graft body to resubmit it after fixing the technical error.

The registrar of the Accountability Court returned the supplementary reference to the NAB with objections, saying that the documents of the reference are not in order and pages of the reference are not numbered.

The registrar office returned the reference to the NAB and asked it to resubmit it after removing the errors.

The anti-graft body has filed supplementary reference regarding Park Lane case on Tuesday against Zardari and 19 other suspects.

Those who are nominated by the NAB in the supplementary reference include Zardari, Muhammad Iqbal Memon, Director Park Lane company, M/s Park Lane Estate Private Limited, Muhammad Iqbal Khan Noori, Director M/s Parthenon (Pvt) Ltd, Muhammad Hanif Accountant M/s Park Lane Estate, M/s Parthenon (Private) Limited, an incorporated entity bearing certificate of incorporation under the provision of the Companies Ordinance, 1984, and Hussain Lawai, former president Arif Habib Bank and Summit Bank.

The other accused include Abdul Ghani Majid, shareholder/director Regent Service (Pvt) Ltd multiple companies known as OMNI group, Khawaj Anwar Majid, shareholder director OMNI group, Taha Raza, relationship manager Arif Habib Bank now Summit bank, Farooq Abdullah area branch manager HBL, Uzair Naeem, former AVP Summit Bank, M/s Tracom (Pvt) Ltd through GM south, an incorporated entity bearing certificate of incorporation under the provision of the companies office, Muhammad Saleem Faisal General Manger (GM) M/s Tracom (Private) Limited, and Zahir Ismail.

The Accountability Court-II Judge, Azam Khan, on August 10th indicted the former president and the PPP leader Zardari and other accused in the Park Lane reference.

According to the NAB, Zardari and others had allegedly embezzled funds obtained for M/S Parthenon Private Limited and M/S Park Lane Private Limited, which inflicted losses of Rs3.77 billion to the national exchequer.

According to the joint investigation team (JIT), Park Lane Estate Company, a Karachi-based firm, was incorporated on October 18, 1979.

In 1989, Zardari acquired the company along with his "front man" Iqbal Memon.

In 2009, Zardari, chairman Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Iqbal Memon and others became shareholders of the company.

As per the JIT report, it was found out that the M/S Parthenon was merely a "front company" (straw borrower) of M/S Park Lane Private Limited.

M/S Parthenon had no independent business when it entered into a joint venture (JV) with the M/S Park Lane (October 2009), it said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020