ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur have approached the Islamabad High Court, seeking pre-arrest bail to avoid arrest in the fake bank accounts case.

An IHC division bench, comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, will hear their petitions on Thursday (today).

In the identical petitions filed through their counsel Farooq H. Naek and Javed Iqbal Wains, the former president and his sister claimed that certain authorities were dragging the two into the controversy to defame them in the public at large.

The petitions gave a brief background of the fake accounts case and said that “the instant matter arises out of inquiries initiated by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) regarding fake accounts connected with various individuals and entities”.

The petitions alleged that the FIA, instead of investigating the matter itself, had stated before the Supreme Court that there was slackness and slow progress in the matter and that the probe was being obstructed and hampered.

According to the petitions, FIA’s State Bank Circle, Karachi, registered an FIR alleging that a sum of Rs15 million was transferred to the account of M/s Zardari Group (Private) Limited (Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur) from an account of A-One International, sole proprietorship in the name of Tariq Sultan. The FIR registered on July 6, 2018 nominated 10 accused, except Mr Zardari and Ms Talpur, the petitions said, adding that Mr Zardari and his sister were implicated as accused in the interim challan filed in the banking court on July 21, 2018 with mala fide intention in which they were mentioned as absconding accused persons which led the court to issue non-bailable warrants for them.

The former president stated that at that point of time he was busy in Islamabad in connection with the elections of prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly.

The petition went on to state that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the Supreme Court in this matter recommended filing of 16 references.

However, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman filed an application under Section 16-A of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999 in the banking court for transfer of the FIR, and subsequently, the case was transferred from the banking court in Karachi to the accountability court of Islamabad.

Mr Zardari contended in the petition that “in the circumstances the petitioner gravely apprehended that NAB personnel/law enforcing agencies of the country with mala fide intention and ulterior motives in order to humiliate, harass and disgrace the petitioner would arrest him”.

The petition said that “at the moment the 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 [NAB]”. The former president requested the court to direct NAB to share the details of all the matters it was probing against him.

Mr Zardari and Ms Talpur sought the grant of pre-arrest bail till the final conclusion of the trial in the accountability court.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2019