Former President Asif Ali Zardari appeared before the court via video link from Bilawal House Karachi for today’s hearing in Park Lane reference.
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-August 10th, 2020) An accountability court in Islamabad indicted former president Asif Ali Zardari in the Park Lane reference today via video link here on Monday (today).
Asif Ali Zardari appeared before the court through a video link from his Bilawal House residence in Karachi as the judge had earlier directed the authorities to ensure his presence for hearing of the case.
During the proceedings, Zardari pleaded the court that his counsel was not there as he was in other courts and therefore he could not be indicted today. A this, the court observed that his lawyer already knew about the date of today’s hearing.
“You will be indicted today,” the judge remarked.
The judge also remarked that the lawyer should have sent his assistant lawyer to attend today’s hearing.
“There are two simple sentence and you listen to them and answer,” the judge further remarked. Zardari, however, asked the court to write in the order that he was indicted in absence of his lawyer. At this, the judge observed that the courts could not force the lawyers for appearance if they remain absent. The charges are framed against the suspect.
On July 19, 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed Park Lane properties reference against former president Asif Ali Zardari.
The reference nominated Asif Ali Zardari and 17 others.
According to NAB, Asif Ali Zardari was allegedly for running a fake front company by the name of Parathon as a shareholder in Park Lane properties. A loan worth Rs 1.5 billion was taken out from the bank and transferred to the company account in a private bank.
Zardari had forged documents to comply with the loan policy and coaxed the National Bank into loan approval, it added.
