The Supreme Court on Saturday ordered that all records pertaining to the fake bank accounts be seized and presented before it.
In an interim order in the mega money laundering and fake bank accounts case, the top court also directed to freeze all fake bank accounts which have been identified in the joint investigation team (JIT) report. It further ordered the monitoring of all transactions made from the accounts. As per the interim order, a ban has been imposed on the direct and indirect sale or purchase of all buildings and properties mentioned in the JIT report.
A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will hear the case on December 31 and notices have been sent to the attorney general and all respondents in this regard.
The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.
Meanwhile, Zain Malik, Abdul Ghani Majeed and Anwar Majeed, three of the several suspects in the fake bank accounts case, have rejected the findings of a report compiled by the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the scam.
The JIT report had claimed that Zain, the son-in-law of property tycoon Malik Riaz, maintained Bahria Town accounts through which about Rs10.2 billion were allegedly laundered.
Zain, in his response in the Supreme Court, rejected the JIT’s claim, saying that its report had ‘misread and misconceived’ the documents provided by Bahria Town.
According to Zain’s response, Bahria Town had entered into a joint venture with Zardari Group which owned a plot measuring 6,813.74 square yards in Karachi’s ‘prime commercial area’ and was ‘ideal for development as a building project which would include hotels, shops, offices and residential flats’. The reply refutes claims that Bahria Town had awarded Rs1.2 billion to the Zardari Group as kickbacks, adding that the manner and mode in which Zardari Group utilised the sum of Rs1.22 billion has neither any nexus nor Bahria Town is responsible for the same.
Omni Group’s Anwar Majeed and Abdul Ghani Majeed, meanwhile, said the JIT report did not include records that it was given, and neither did it mention the names of the 924 people whose statements were recorded. The response said that the JIT had no basis to recommend that the case be sent to the National Accountability Bureau for investigation. “We are innocent in all allegations levelled against us,” they maintained.
Malik Riaz Hussain and Zain Malik are expected to appear before a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court when it resumes hearing in the case on Monday. At the last hearing in Lahore, the apex court had ordered both Malik Riaz and Zain Malik to personally appear before it at the next hearing.
Published in Daily Times, December 30th 2018.
