Zardari admitted to hospital after drop in sugar level, blood pressure: Media report

Pakistan's former president Asif Ali Zardari, who is in the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), was admitted to a hospital in Rawalpindi on Thursday after a drop in his sugar level and blood pressure, according to a media report.

A NAB team arrested the 63-year-old co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from his house here on Monday in a multi-million dollar money laundering case, hours after the Islamabad High Court rejected his bail plea.

On Tuesday, an accountability court granted the NAB 11-day physical remand of Zardari and ordered that he be presented before the court again on June 21.

The former president was shifted to Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology (RIC) on Thursday evening, the Geo TV reported.

He underwent angiography and other tests at the facility, it said.

According to NAB officials, it was a routine check-up of the PPP leader. However, Zardari's party said it was not formally informed about the deterioration in health condition of the co-chairman.

Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are two of the main accused in the money laundering scandal which utilised fake bank accounts to channel illegally gained funds out of Pakistan.

According to the NAB, the anti-corruption watchdog which is probing them in the fake bank accounts case, the duo made transactions of Rs 150 million through alleged fake bank accounts.

Zardari, the 11th President of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013, has denied any link with the fake accounts. He has said the allegation was part of a vilification campaign by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to malign opposition leaders.

He was elected as a member of the National Assembly from the NA-213 Nawabshah seat of Sindh province in last year's general election.

Zardari's arrest prompted a strong reaction from the Opposition and sporadic protests by PPP workers in various parts of the country, mostly in the party-ruled Sindh province.