An accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday extended judicial remand of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur until December 17 in the money laundering through fake bank accounts and Park Lane Reference cases. Zardari was not taken from the hospital to the accountability court due to his poor health. The prosecution informed the court that it was not possible to produce the former president due to his health condition. The Park Lane reference has been registered against Zardari and Ms Talpur under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
Zardari has been accused of being involved “in extending loan and its misappropriation by M/s Parthenon Private Limited, M/S Park Lane Estate Private Limited and others”. On Nov. 12, the court had rejected Zardari’s application seeking his transfer to Karachi for treatment by private doctors of his choice instead of physicians of the Islamabad-based government hospital. On the same day, the court had extended Zardari and Talpur’s judicial remand till Nov. 26 in the money laundering through fake bank accounts case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prosecutor had presented his arguments in the courtroom.
“Zardari was shifted to the hospital upon recommendation of a medical board formed by the government […] filing an application with the government is not begging,” the prosecutor stated.
