ISLAMABAD: PPP Co-Chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari has filed application citing new amended NAB law and sought acquittal in Park Lane reference.
The application was filed in Islamabad Accountability Court on Tuesday in which Asif Zardari took the ground that court had no jurisdiction to hear the reference due to amendments recently introduced in NAB laws, and therefore the court should either send the reference back to NAB or acquit him.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PPP co-chairman has already got relief from AC in Thatta Water Supply and Rs8 billion transaction references when the court sent back the reference to the NAB as “the case does not come in the jurisdiction of the court.”
Case Background:
According to a 17-page charge-sheet issued by Accountability Court in August 2020, Zardari influenced relevant authorities during his tenure as the president to get loans released to his front companies, including the Park Lane.
He allegedly got a loan of Rs1.5 billion released for another of his companies, Parthenon Private Limited, with ill intention, and the money was later transferred for his personal use through fake bank accounts.
NAB accused the former president of causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs3.77 billion through these fake bank account transactions. In its 13-page long reference, NAB alleged that the accused created benami properties through Park Lane Company using Parthenon Private Limited as the front.
Using the money acquired through loans, eight floors were constructed at the IBC Centre.
Initially, a loan of Rs1.5 billion was taken that gradually increased to Rs4 billion. Former executive director of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and two former presidents of the National Bank of Pakistan, are listed as witnesses against Zardari in this reference.
