A banking court on Saturday issued notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on an application filed by Omni Group tycoon Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed seeking post-arrest bail in the fake bank accounts and money laundering case. The court directed FIA to submit its response to the bail plea on next hearing of Wednesday. The applicants through their counsel contended before the court that the agency had failed to produce evidence to corroborate charges against them. “FIA has been taking action against us on political basis.” They, therefore, pleaded to the court to grant them bail. Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, close aide Anwar Majeed and others are facing a probe into the money laundering scam involving over Rs 35 billion laundered through fake bank accounts. Earlier, on January 7, the court extended the interim bail of the former president and his sister until January 23 in the money laundering case.
Published in Daily Times, January 20th 2019.