An accountability court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of fake bank accounts case until May 21. Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur appeared before the court amid tight security.
Justice Muhammad Arshad Malik presided over the hearing of the case, during which the counsel for Zardari asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor to provide copies of the reference to his client and other 30 accused in the case.
The prosecutor replied that 28 copies of the reference have been printed so far, and it would take some time to print more copies. Judge Arshad Malik directed the NAB prosecutor to provide the copies of the reference to the accused at the earliest. The prosecutor also informed the court that Investigation Officer (IO) Ali Ahmed Abro was unable to appear before the court due to a head injury.
On this, the judge wondered if only a single man was working on the case and looking after all matters.
During the hearing, the court granted a day’s exemption to Zain Malik, another accused in the reference, as he was unable to appear before the court due to bone marrow issue.
Heavy contingents of security personnel were deployed around the court to prevent any untoward incident.
On the other hand, Zardari sent an application to the NAB investigation team and sought more time for appearing before it. The application also mentioned that he was scheduled to appear before the accountability court, so he could not show up at the bureau. On May 8, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had granted him pre-arrest bail until May 15 in the case related to alleged illegal award of contracts to private firms. The case is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the anti-graft watchdog after the Supreme Court forwarded the joint investigation team (JIT) report in the fake bank accounts scandal and directed it to probe money laundering of billions of rupees through fictitious bank accounts and file references, if needed.