Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Friday 'advised' Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign. "Imran Khan said he would not take loans from the IMF and instead prefer to commit a suicide," Zardari rcalled Khan as saying before coming in to power, adding that "Now, he did what he hated to do, so I advice Khan to resign and go home."
Taking to reporters informally inside the accountability court, Zardari said that the passage of Financial Bill 2019 would depend on Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) one of ruling coalition's components. About high-powered commission announced by Prime Minister to ascertain how previous governments of Pakistan People Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took Rs 24 trillion loans during the last one decade, he said that if Khan could not constitute a commission to probe corruption since 1947, he should at least order a probe into corruption committed in twenty years.
Zardari said that NAB conducted his routine medical check up on June 20. Earlier, NAB officials produced Zaradri and others accused in the fake bank account case before Accountability Court judge Muhammad Arshad Malik amid tight security. However, Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur did not appear before the court and filed an exemption application through her counsel Farooq H Naek which the court accepted.
The judge while showing annoyance over delay in issuing a show cause notice to chief secretary Sindh reprimanded his staff. During the previous hearing, the judge had ordered to issue a show cause notice against Chief Secretary Sindh and Superintendent Malir Jail for non-production of accused Anwar Majeed and Ghani Majeed.
He said that Chief Secretary Sindh did not even deem it necessary to appear before the court or submit his answer before it. "I will take action against the Chief Secretary," he said. When the judge asked to check whether the chief secretary has been issued a show cause notice, he came to know that no notice had been issued. The judge questioned his staff why no show cause notice had been issued despite the passage of 20 days. He then ordered to issue a show cause notice to Chief Secretary Sindh immediately.
The investigation officer (IO), Muhammad Ali Abro, submitted death certificate of one the accused Iqbal Arian before the court. The judge inquired about the accused person who submitted application to become an approver. The prosecutor informed the court that their applications are still under process.
He told the court that NAB has approached Ministry of Interior for issuing red warrants for accused Naseer Abdullah and Azam Wazir Khan. The court ordered NAB to inform it about the steps regarding issuance of red warrants during the next hearing. The accused Muahmmad Raheel also filed an exemption application before the court. The IO said that Raheel has not been nominated in the case and he has approached the court fearing arrest.
On this, judge ordered removal of Raheel's name from the list of accused persons if he has not been nominated in the case. The defence counsel complained before the court for not producing copies of the reference to accused persons. "The accused persons do not know under what charges they have been nominated in the case as NAB has so far failed to provide copies of the references against them," Naek said.
The defence counsel said that his client remained under custody of NAB for a long time but the IO did not know why he kept his client in jail. The court ordered NAB to provide copies of reference to the accused person on Saturday (today). The court marked attendance of Zardari and other accused and adjourned the case till June 27.
After the distribution of copies of reference, the court will indict the accused in the next hearing. There were total 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.
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