ISLAMABAD  -   The Islamabad High Court Thursday extended interim pre-arrest bail to former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur in a matter pertaining to laundering of billions of rupees through fake bank accounts.

A division bench of the IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani conducted hearing of the petitions moved by the leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and extended their bails till June 10 after NAB furnished the record of the case against them.

During the hearing, NAB Prosecutor Jahanzeib Bharwana briefed the bench about the case, saying Asif Zardari is directly involved in fake bank accounts case and the bureau has enough evidence to arrest him.

He told that the bureau had tracked the transfer of Rs1.5 billion to an account linked to the Zardari Group of Companies from an account identified to be fake. He added that the account holder had no idea that the account existed on his name while the transaction was flagged as suspicious by the State Bank of Pakistan as well. At this, Justice Aamer asked that whether the NAB had enough material to initiate an investigation under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010. The NAB prosecutor replied that yes they can launch an investigation without meeting requirements of the act.

However, the court rejected Naek’s request to submit a reply to NAB’s document outlining details of the mega money laundering case and deferred the hearing by extending Zardari and Faryal’s interim pre-arrest bails till June 10. The PPP leaders moved the court through their counsel Farooq H Naek and cited the chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and investigative officer as respondents.  A total of nine applications were filed by the PPP leaders – seven by Zardari and two by Talpur. Five out of the seven petitions filed by Zardari sought extension in pre-arrest bails while the other two were on new call-up notices. Both of Talpur’s applications sought extension in pre-arrest bail.  In this matter, the anti-corruption watchdog had already submitted its reply opposing bail to the former president. In its reply to the high court, NAB stated the reasons for its opposition to bail to Zardari saying that NAB was taking action against Zardari within legal boundaries and investigation was underway against the former president in accordance with NAB ordinance.

It added: “All the proceedings were taken in accordance with law and there is absolutely no violation of fundamental rights of petitioner, he had been given complete opportunity vide call up notice to clarify allegations levelled against him.”

“There is no statutory provision provided in the law whereby NAB is bound to inform or notice before arrest hence this petition is liable to be dismissed,” contended the bureau.

Therefore, the bureau prayed to the court that petition of Zardari seeking bail may be dismissed in the interest of justice. In their petitions, they prayed to the court to restrain the bureau from arresting them.

In the identical petitions, the former president stated that NAB had served a call-up notice on him to appear on March 20 before a combined investigation team to record his statement with respect to investigation into fake bank accounts.

He added that in order to safeguard himself from mala fide and illegal arrest at the hands of NAB and law enforcing agencies of the country and to enable him to surrender before the competent court of law, he had filed a constitutional petition before the Sindh High Court for protective bail. The SHC on March 19 approved protective bail for him for 10 ten days, he said.

Zardari said that he also appeared before the NAB team which after interrogating him for one hour handed him a questionnaire with the direction to submit reply to the same within ten days.

“At the moment petitioner is not aware that how many cases are registered against him and how many Call Up notices will be issued to him and /or references may be filed against him by the respondents. Till date three Call Up Notices have been issued by the respondents to the petitioner,” said the petition.

“There is every possibility that if petitioner appears before NAB authorities in connection with a Call Up Notice, he may be entangled and arrested in some other case,” the petitioner added. The petitioner continued that he apprehend his arrest at the hands of the respondents on the basis of Call Up Notices.

Therefore, Zardari requested the court to grant him bail before arrest and in the meanwhile, interim bail before arrest may be granted to the petitioner. He also prayed to the court to direct respondent NAB authorities to submit list of all cases against the petitioner