Pak's anti-graft body recovers Rs 60 crore from Zardari's aide

Pakistan's top anti-graft body on Wednesday recovered Rs 60 crore in the fake accounts case from prime suspect Younas Kudwavi, who is believed to be a business partner of former president Asif Ali Zardari, according to a media report.

The National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Rawalpindi chapter recovered Rs 60 crore from Kudwavi, Geo News reported, citing sources.

The NAB has also presented its interim challan before the accountability court - approved earlier by its executive board.

Kudwavi is facing the charge of issuing illegal allotment letter on properties registered for a temple and library.

Quoting sources, it said that Kudwavi is a business partner of former president Zardari in the Park Lane Estate Company, a Karachi-based real estate firm co-owned by Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

 

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was investigating 32 people, including Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed, in relation to money laundering through fictitious bank accounts.

Zardari's close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July last year in connection with the probe. His other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August 2018.

Last month, Zardari and Bilawal appeared before the NAB, which questioned them on corruption charges. They appeared before the NAB in connection with an alleged loan obtained by the Park Lane Estate Company.

The NAB has claimed in the case that a piece of land belonging to the Punjab forest department was illegally transferred to the company by some government officials.

The Supreme Court in September 2018 constituted a joint investigation team to probe the fake accounts case. The JIT had filed its report and also recommended a directive for NAB to conduct a thorough inquiry.

In January 2019, the Supreme Court had referred the JIT report to NAB to launch its probe and complete it within two months.

On March 15, a banking court in Karachi approved the NAB chairman's petition and transferred the money laundering case to an accountability court in Islamabad for trial.