Three accused in Fake Bank Accounts Case request plea bargain

ISLAMABAD: Three accused caught in the ongoing inquiry in the Fake Bank Accounts Case have offered to take up the offer for plea bargain and submitted their requests on the matter to NAB, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Namely, Khursheed Anwar Jamali, Arif Ali and Asif Mehmood have reached out to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with their submissions over a probable plea bargain.

All three accused appeared for hearing in the Accountability Court today over the corruption charges levied against them acting upon which the court extended their physical remands till July 16.

During the proceedings the judge inquired about the plea bargain requests of the accused to which the Investigation officer (IO) representing the anti-graft watchdog said that the requests were in process.

Read More: Court directs to present Abdul Ghani Majeed on July 18 in fake bank accounts case

The judge further inquired about the finalisation of the said process to which the IO answered that it would require a few more days as the investigation took time and actions needed to be undertaken bearing in mind their consequences.

The accountability court ordered the accused to be presented before the court on July 16.

Former President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, his sister and 32 other accused are facing charges of laundering more than Rs35 billion through fake bank accounts. Zardari’s close aides Hussain Lawai and Anwar Majeed have also been nominated in the scam. They both are in judicial custody.

Last month, a banking court in Karachi transferred the money laundering case against the former president, his sister and others to Rawalpindi on a request by NAB.

The court also cancelled the interim bail of the 19 suspects, including the PPP leaders in the case.  The court directed the authorities to return surety amount to the suspects.