Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur on Monday challenged the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) interim charge-sheet in the money-laundering case.
The FIA is investigating alleged fake bank accounts and has named PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari and his sister, Talpur, among the 32 suspects.
Talpur did not appear before the FIA earlier as she sought more time. The PPP leader, who recently won from a provincial assembly seat, obtained pre-arrest bail until August 6 from a banking court in Karachi on July 28.
She had earlier obtained a six-day protective bail from the SHC.
In her application before the Sindh High Court on Monday, Talpur stated that the FIA’s interim charge-sheet did not clearly mention the charges or her name.
She pleaded the court to dismiss the FIA’s charges and issue a stay order on the action being taken on its basis.
On July 12, while hearing the suo motu case on the FIA’s investigation, the Supreme Court had ruled that the agency should not summon Zardari and Talpur until the July 25 election.
The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money-laundering from fictitious accounts, under which Zardari’s close aide and then-Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai was arrested earlier this month.
The FIA inquiry started when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a ‘suspicious transaction report’ in January this year regarding ten bank accounts.
Sources maintain that over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at a private bank were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.
The amount according to FIA sources was said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes. But despite these huge transactions, the bank authorities never reported them to the authorities concerned, including the FIA.
Published in Daily Times, July 31st 2018.
