Zardari knocks SC door over transfer of fake accounts case

ISLAMABAD: Former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari approached on Tuesday the Supreme Court challenging a banking court’s ruling that transferred the fake bank accounts and money laundering case to an accountability court in Islamabad.

Zardari through his lawyer filed an appeal through which he questioned the March 15 order of the banking court.

The appeal states the former president is being subjected to political victimisation as fake and fabricated cases have been instituted against him.

Citing the NAB chairman and the banking court as respondents, the appellant contended that he has not been nominated in an interim charge-sheet of the case and demanded that the apex court set aside the banking court’s ruling.

Last month, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had dismissed a set of petitions by Zardari and others against the transfer of the case to Islamabad, ruling the order of the banking court was in accordance with the Supreme Court’s judgement.

The SHC observed, “After examining the judgement of Honourable Supreme Court, we do not see any ambiguity in the said judgment which would lead us to conclude that the transfer of the case pending before the special court (arising out of FIR No. 04/2018) was excluded from the ambit of the judgement when it was ordered that a reference by the NAB be filed before the accountability court, Islamabad.”

“As we have concluded that the transfer of the case arising out of FIR No. 04/2018 and the filing of reference at Islamabad is a consequence of the material placed before the NAB and directions of the Honourable Supreme Court,” it added.