ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court hearing multi-billion rupees fake bank accounts case on Tuesday again deferred indictment of former president Asif Ali Zardari and others in the Thatta water supply reference. Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the case, deferred the indictment of Zardari and others, and adjourned the case till August 7.

At the start of the hearing, Zardari's counsel requested the court to defer the indictment till final decision over the application filed by his client seeking dismissal of the reference. He told the court that Farooq H Naek, Zardari's lead counsel, was busy in a meeting in Karachi, therefore, he might be granted time.

When the court inquired what Naek was busy in?

"Naek is attending a meeting of the Senate regarding Kashmir," the counsel replied.

The counsel has also filed an exemption application seeking one-day exemption of his client, which the court has approved. The court sought comments over Zardari's application and adjourned the case till August 7.

The bureau had not nominated Zardari in the interim reference; and nominated him and Ashfaq Leghari and In-charge Naudero House Nadeem Bhutto in the supplementary reference.

In the interim reference, the bureau nominated 13 accused including, Ejaz Ahmed Khan, former secretary of Special Initiative Department of Sindh; Hassan Memon, project director/chairman of the procurement committee for the water supply scheme, Thatta; members of the committee namely Ali Akbar Abro, Aijaz Ahmed Memon, Athar Nawaz Durrani, Abdul Haleem Memon, Mohammad Farrukh Khan, Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Siddiq Sulemani and Zeeshan Hasan Yousaf, a private contractor, Harish, CEO Omni Group Khawaja Abdul Ghani Majeed, and Minahal Majeed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020