KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed the presidential immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution before a banking court and asked it to stop the ongoing criminal proceeding against him in a case of fake bank accounts.

While in another application, his sister Faryal Talpur sought exemption from the court appearance for one day.

On Monday, advocate Muhammad Waqas, an associate of senior lawyer Farooq H. Naik, filed two applications before the court on behalf of their clients, pleading that Mr Zardari was elected president last month. He submitted that Article 248 (2) of the Constitution safeguarded the president from legal proceedings in court during his term of office.

The said article clause (2) of the Constitution reads: “No criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the president or a governor in any court during his term of office.”

“In the light [of] Article 248 (2) of the Constitution of Pakistan… no criminal proceedings can continue against him [Mr Zardari], hence, this instant application is for stay of proceedings against the applicant during his tenure as president of Pakistan,” the application stated.

Meanwhile, another application submitted on behalf of Faryal Talpur, in which the counsel sought exemption for one day as Ms Talpur was engaged in the ongoing National Assembly session.

The court granted the exemption from appearance to Ms Talpur and adjourned the hearing until May 29.

Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur and others have been facing cases pertaining to the alleged opening of fake bank accounts and using them for illicit transactions amounting to billions of rupees.

In 2018, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court had identified at least 29 bank accounts as fake and claimed in its report that those had been used for laundering Rs42 billion.

The apex court had in Jan 2019, referred the JIT report and evidence collected to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for further investigation. However, later the cases were transferred to the banking court in Karachi for further proceedings.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2024