Court sends back suspicious transactions case against Zardari to NAB

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Wednesday given relief to former president Asif Ali Zardari in suspicious bank transactions reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau, ARY News reported.

The accountability court returned the suspicious bank transactions reference back to the NAB over jurisdiction issue.

Zardari’s counsel Farooq Naik and NAB prosecutor Sohail Arif appeared before the court in the hearing.

Naik argued that under the new accountability law the case against Zardari has been out of the jurisdiction of the accountability court. He pleaded to the court to decide petions as per the law.

Administrative Judge Muhammad Bashir after hearing arguments ruled that the accountability court to send the reference to the concerned forum.

The NAB had filed the suspicious bank transactions reference against Zardari in the court last year.

An accountability court today also returned the Toshakhana reference against Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to NAB.

The court remarked that after the amendments in the NAB Ordinance, a case of an amount less than Rs 500 million cannot be registered.

The court had earlier declared Nawaz Sharif a proclaimed offender due to his continuous absence in the Toshakhana case.