Zardari, Faryal Talpur grilled by FIA officials in fake accounts case

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur appeared before the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team in Islamabad in fake accounts case and faced grilling from the investigators for around 38 minutes, ARY News reported.

The FIA officials handed over a questionnaire to the sibling duo after the questioning. Sources informed that Zardari told the probe team that these cases were politically-motivated.

During the questioning, Zardari said he would answer the questions after going through the questionnaire in detail. The FIA will take its next move after receiving answers of the questions.

Zardari and Ms Talpur appeared before the FIA after fourth summon in a case pertaining to fake bank accounts. They had not appeared before the FIA despite three previous summons.

The investigation agency had threatened to take the two politicians to the court if they did not appear this time.

In a brief talk with journalists outside the FIA office, Zardari said the case was made during Nawaz Sharif’s government. To a follow-up question from the journalist, he deftly responded “Such things happen in such matters’ (Is Tarah to Hota hai Is Tarah Ke Kaamon Main).

The siblings, however, avoided a detailed interaction with the media.

The agency had first summoned Mr. Zardari and Ms Talpur on July 10, while second summon was issued on July 28, third on August 4 and now the fourth was issued asking them to appear on August 27 (today).

In response to the first summon, the former president and his sister requested FIA through their counsel to reschedule their appearance after the elections since they were busy canvassing for the elections concluded that week.

The case background

Zardari and his sister were among over a dozen suspects declared absconders in the money-laundering scam.

In the FIA list, Anwar Majeed and his son’s names appeared on top of the list while those of Zardari and Talpur were on the 19th and 20th number, respectively.

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

Two days after being declared an absconder in a money-laundering scam, Faryal Talpur obtained pre-arrest bail from the Sindh High Court.

Ms Talpur filed a petition in the SHC Larkana circuit bench seeking pre-arrest bail.

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 aid of Zardari, and confiscated record allegedly related with money laundering.