ISLAMABAD: A prosecution witness on Monday told Accountability Court that he did not know about the charges leveled against all the accused including former president Asif Ali Zardari and others in the Park Lane case. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB)'s witness, Ahsan Aslam, joint registrar Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), while testifying before the Accountability Court-II judge, Muhammad Azam Khan, said that he had no information with respect to charge framed against all the accused of the Park Lane case.

He said this when the defence counsel, Mian Ali Ashfaq, asked the witness during cross examination that are you aware of charges leveled against all the accused persons. At the start of the hearing, Zardari and other accused's counsel filed separate exemption applications seeking one-day exemption of their clients which the court approved.

When the counsel asked the witness that were you the author of any one of the documents that you produced before the court. The witness replied that no, he was not the author of any document. The NAB prosecutor told the defence counsel that the court had made part all the documents produced by the witness.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till December 23rd, and the defence counsel will continue cross examination of the witness, Aslam. 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.

As per the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), 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