Supreme Court to hear fake accounts case on Nov 12

KARACHI: The Chief Justice of Pakistan has fixed hearing of the fake bank accounts case on November 12 (Monday), ARY News reported.

A bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar will hear the case.

The court has issued notices to Director General FIA, Advocate General Sindh and the Prosecutor General of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A summon has also been issued to Nimar Majeed, a son of the owner of OMNI Group Anwar Majeed, to appear before the court in personal capacity.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar will hear the case regarding fake bank accounts on Monday.

Supreme Court had constituted a six-member joint investigation team to investigate the fake bank accounts case. The JIT, headed by Additional Director General (Economic Crime Wing) FIA Headquarters Ahsan Sadiq, include Commissioner-IR (Corporate Zone) Regional Tax Officer Imran Latif Minhas, Joint Director BID-I State Bank of Pakistan Majid Hussain, Director National Accountability Bureau Noman Aslam, Muhammad Afzal, Director (Specialized Companies Division) Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan and Brigadier Shahid Parvez of Inter-Services Intelligence.

The case background

Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur were among over a dozen suspects named in a money-laundering scam.

In the FIA list, Anwar Majeed and his son’s names appeared on top of the list of the list of the accused with Zardari and Talpur were at the bottom of the list.

According to the FIR registered by FIA, transactions of billions of rupees were made into suspicious accounts, including the Zardari Group, owned by the PPP leaders, which is accused of receiving Rs 15 million of the laundered money.

In December 2016, the Pakistan Rangers conducted raids at the Karachi office of the Omni Group of Companies and the residence of its owner Anwar Majeed, a close aide of Zardari, and confiscated record allegedly related to money laundering.

The Supreme Court in July had taken up a suo motu case regarding fake accounts that revolves around a 2015 inquiry into the suspicious transactions when 29 ‘benami’ bank accounts were identified. Seven individuals were found involved in transacting Rs 35 bn suspiciously.