The Accountability Court hearing multibillion rupees fake bank accounts case on Monday extended physical remand of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur till July 29. The officials of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) produced Talpur before Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir on expiry of her remand term. The Bureau also produced former president Asif Ali Zardari before the court amid tight security arrangements.
The NAB prosecutor requested the court to extend physical remand of Talpur for seven days for completion of investigation. Counsel for Zardari and Talpur, Sardar Latif Khosa requested the court for granting 14-day physical remand of the accused as appearing after every day before the court is not appropriate. On this, the investigation officer of the case Muhammad Ali Abro said that he needs only seven-day physical remand.
Khosa again said, "Kindly grant 14-day physical remand. "My investigation task is very short and what would I do with 14-day physical remand?" the investigation officer replied. When the court asked about accused Azam Wazir Khan and Nasir Abdullah, the investigation officer told the court that both the accused are out of the country. The NAB has approached Ministry of Interior to issue arrest warrants for both the accused through Interpol, he said.
During the hearing, the former president came to the rostrum and presented some newspaper clippings in which Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar had stated that Zardari owns 32 benami properties.
He requested the court to summon Akbar and ask him about evidence regarding his claims. On this, the court told him to give these clippings to his counsel for filing an application before it regarding the matter for taking legal action.
During the hearing, Khosa requested the court to allow Zardari and Talpur to meet, which the court accepted. The court after hearing the arguments marked attendance of the accused, remanded Talpur into NAB custody for seven days and ordered it to produce her before the court on July 29.
The counsel for Anwar Majeed told the court that NAB has so far not provided copies of reference to the accused persons. The judge told him to ensure presence of the accused (Anwar Majeed) and copies of reference will be provided within two days. There are a total of 30 accused including Asif 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.
Meanwhile, the court approved an application moved by accused Noreen Sultan and Kiran Aman seeking permanent exemption from personal appearance before it. Both of the accused had also moved an application to become approvers in fake bank accounts case.
The accused told the court in their application that traveling expenses had been reimbursed to them when the case was under investigation in Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). "We cannot afford financially to come here for every hearing from Karachi; therefore, the court should exempt us from personal appearance before it," they requested in their application.
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