A banking court on Wednesday forwarded to the Supreme Court for advice Omni Group’s plea to get its bank accounts unfrozen. The accounts were frozen in connection with a money laundering probe against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani, close aides of Zardaris.
In its plea, the conglomerate had requested the court to order that its 19 bank accounts be unfrozen.
As the hearing went under way on Wednesday, the banking court decided to apprise the Supreme Court of the plea, saying that a verdict would be announced after the apex court’s suggestion was received on the matter.
The case was initially registered in 2015 against former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, another close aide of the former president. Later, seven individuals, including Zardari and Talpur, were found involved in using the accounts in question to make suspicious transactions, totalling Rs35 billion.
The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks. Last month, Lawai and banker Taha Raza were detained and booked for allegedly facilitating the opening of 29 ‘fake’ accounts.
Published in Daily Times, October 4th 2018.
