ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court hearing multi-billion rupees fake bank accounts case on Wednesday adjourned hearing of the Park Lane case involving former president Asif Ali Zardari and others without any progress till January 11.

The Accountability Court-II judge, Muhammad Azam Khan, while hearing the case adjourned the case due to absence of the accused in custody and lawyer’s strike. During the hearing, the court was informed that the police did not produce the accused in judicial custody due to security reasons.

The defence counsel told the court that the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) announced to observe strike against killing of lawyer on Wednesday. The court adjourned hearing of the case till January 11.

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.

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 that inflicted losses of Rs3.77 billion to the national exchequer.

As per the joint investigation team (JIT), it was found 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