Park Lane, mega money laundering cases: AC adjourns hearing due to lawyers’ protest

ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court Islamabad on Wednesday adjourned hearing of Park Lane case and mega money laundering case against former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and others due to a lawyers’ protest against demolition of their illegal chambers at the district courts.

Accountability Court-II Judge Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing Park Lane and mega money laundering cases, adjourned the hearing of the case till March 5, without proceedings due to a protest of the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) and the Islamabad District Bar Association (IDBA) against demolition of their chambers by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor, Waseem Javeed, and associate of Zardari’s counsel Farooq H Naek appeared before the court.

The prosecution witness, Ahsan Aslam, a senior official of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) also appeared before the court.

At the start of the hearing, counsel of Zardari and other accused filed separate applications seeking exemption of their client from personal appearance before the court for one-day, which it approved.

Those who were nominated by the NAB in the supplementary reference filed in connection with the Park Lane case included, Asif Ali 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 (Pvt) 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 the Summit Bank.

The other accused included Abdul Ghani Majid, shareholder/director Regent Service (Pvt) Ltd multiple companies known as Omni Group, Khawaja Anwar Majid shareholder director Omni Group, Taha Raza public 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 (Pvt) Limited, and Zahir Ismail.

The NAB had nominated Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Hussain Lawai, Anwar Majid, Abdul Ghani Majeed, Taha Raza, Arif Khan, Muhammad Umair, Syed Hussain Faisal 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 supplementary reference filed in connection with mega money laundering case.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021