Hearing of Thatta water supply reference adjourned due to lawyers' strike

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad has adjourned the hearing of Thatta water supply references against former president Asif Ali Zardari, Ejaz Ahmed Khan and others following the strike of lawyers, ARY News reported on Monday.

The accountability court’s judge Azam Khan conducted the hearing of Thatta water supply reference against Asif Ali Zardari, former secretary of the Special Initiative Department of Sindh Ejaz Ahmed Khan and others.

However, the hearing was adjourned without any proceeding due to the lawyers’ strike today. The next hearing will be held on March 8.

An accountability court had indicted Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari in Park Lane properties and Thatta water supply references on October 5 last year.

Read: NAB court hears Thatta water supply reference against Zardari, others

According to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the instant case pertains to the illegal award of a contract by the Special Initiative Department for the water supply scheme, Thatta to a private contractor, Harish & Co.

Moreover, Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur and other accused face charges of corruption through fake bank accounts and embezzlement in the financial facility for Park Lane Private Limited and Parthenon (Pvt) Limited.

The Park Lane case is being investigated under different sections of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, over Zardari’s alleged involvement in a loan and its misappropriation by Parthenon Private Limited. A loan worth Rs 1.5 billion was taken from a bank and transferred to the company’s account in a private bank.