Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday termed his arrest “beauty of politics” in third-world countries.
Talking informally in the courtroom, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman wondered what difference his arrest would make, as in his absence “Bilawal will be present, if Bilawal is absent, Aseefa will be there”.
“My arrest is a pressure tactic. Anyone involved in politics has to go to jail,” Zardari said. He said Musharraf was not an elected representative, so he was not prepared to go to jail.
He said all strings were being pulled by the government. “The selected prime minister doesn’t know anything. All is being orchestrated by the interior minister,” the former president claimed.
Zardari also condemned the arrest of the leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly and PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz, who was arrested by the accountability bureau under corruption charges on Tuesday. Earlier, an accountability court in Islamabad granted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 11-day physical remand of former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, a day after his arrest.
Accountability court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik announced the decision and ordered that Zardari be presented before the court again on June 21.
The former president was brought to the court by a team of the accountability bureau. During the court proceedings, the NAB requested a 14-day physical remand of the PPP co-chairman, which was opposed by Zardari’s lawyer Farooq H Naek.
According to the NAB, the former president made a plan to legitimise illegal income through transactions in fake accounts opened in Summit Bank Limited and had used frontmen and benamidars for money laundering.
An analysis of these fake accounts, including A-One International, Lucky International, Logistic Trading, Royal International, Umair Associates, etc, revealed that Zardari had been “remotely controlling the transaction, operations and ultimate benefit taking place in the fake accounts”, a NAB document read.
The bureau accused the former president of having acquired stakes in Summit Bank through his frontman AG Majid by fraudulently showing Nasser Abdullah Hussain Lootah (a UAE national) through a foreign company namely Suroor Investments Ltd Mauritius holding 1.7 billion shares (67 percent) worth Rs 14.6 billion and routing his laundered money under Lootah’s name and portfolio in the bank.
“The evidence reveal[s] that you placed Omni Group as a hedge between you and fake accounts to distance yourself from the transactions of the fake accounts and you in connivance with your front men belonging to Omni Group opened the fake accounts for obtaining / depositing and withdrawing the amounts and ultimately laundering the money in collusion with the president of Summit Bank Mr Hussain Lawai,” the NAB document said, addressing Zardari. It also alleged that the PPP co-chairman in collusion with other accused got released unauthorised payments from the sundry account of Summit Bank for the alleged construction of Plot G-2, Block-2 in Karachi’s Clifton area, “thus acquiring illegal gains” for himself and the other co-accused.
NAB prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi said that prima facie, Zardari was involved in mega money laundering through fake accounts. He said that the former president was a beneficiary of fake accounts and added that the Omni Group was used for fake accounts.
He said that the suspect had been arrested and the bureau required remand in order to conduct investigations. Naek said that the Supreme Court had given NAB two months for investigations and the two-month respite had “long ended”. He said that during the investigation, the NAB chairman had the authority to make an arrest. However, now a reference had been filed and the time had passed.
