ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday extended the judicial remand of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur till Dec 17 in the money laundering through fake bank accounts and Park Lane Reference cases.
Zardari, who has been undergoing treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), was not taken 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 estate reference has been registered against Zardari and 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 through 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.
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 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.
The prosecutor had further asked whether the former president was transferred to the hospital due to begging.
“The situation is not like this […] now seeking the recommendation of the same medical board and the government is being interpreted as begging,” he had argued.
