Islamabad :
In a tweet on a social networking site, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said, “The NAB has so far received Rs 33 billion in the fake accounts case which is about 200 million dollars whereas the total real claim of the case is approx 5000 billion Rupees.
Criticizing the Sindh government, he said, “With this recovery, you can gauge the level of corruption in this country and how the rulers have looted Sindh and Pakistan. It is clear that this is not the first time that a federal minister Has criticized the Sindh government for alleged corruption.
During his recent visit to Karachi, Fawad Chaudhry accused the rulers of Sindh and the PPP leadership of misusing public funds for money laundering abroad.
He also advocated for monitoring the funds given to the Sindh government by the federal government through ‘third party’. Fawad Chaudhry had claimed that ‘the money received by the Sindh government should come from Dubai, Canada and Europe’. Is’.
It may be recalled that about 172 people are under investigation in the fake bank accounts scandal, including former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faralan Talpur, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah and former chief minister. Qaim Ali Shah, Provincial Minister Anwar Sial, Property Tycoon Malik Riaz and others.
Asif Zardari, Faryal Talpur and several other businessmen are being investigated as a 2015 case involving fake transactions of Rs 35 billion through 29 ‘anonymous’ accounts at Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and UBL.
In this regard, the FIA had arrested the well-known banker Hussain Loai, after which in August 2018, the chairman of Omni Group Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed were also arrested in the fake accounts case.
On September 7, 2018, the Supreme Court had constituted a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe into the alleged money laundering of billions of rupees by the former President and his sister through fake accounts. ۔
The JIT had questioned former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and also decided to seek information from PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto.
Asif Ali Zardari had told JIT that he had not been involved in any business activities since 2008 and had distanced himself from all business and commercial activities after assuming the office of President.
The JIT later submitted a report to the Supreme Court in this case, in which the names of 172 persons came to light, on which the federal government had included the names of all these persons in the ECL.
After that, the Supreme Court handed over the case to the NAB and ordered an inquiry within two months and the NAB had set up a joint investigation team for it, before which Asif Zardari appeared.
On March 15, the Karachi Banking Court had granted the NAB’s request to transfer the money laundering case from Karachi to Islamabad.
Following which, Islamabad Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik summoned the eight accused named in the case and adjourned the hearing till April 8. On April 9, the Accountability Court formally registered a case of fake bank accounts and mega money laundering. The hearing had begun.
