ISLAMABAD – Islamabad High Court gives a blow to former President AsifZardari over his bail petition.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) said on Tuesday that National AccountabilityBureau (NAB) had ‘no mala fide or ulterior motives’ behind arrestingPakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur.
The IHC issued the detailed written order of Judge Amir Farooq and JudgeMohsin Akhtar Kiyani, which had rejected the pre-arrest bail petitions ofthe former president and his sister in the money laundering through fakeaccounts case. The judges in their judgement said the arrest of Zardari byNAB was based on need for further investigation into the case, local mediareported.
Referring to the petitioners’ argument that NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal had nolawful authority to execute arrest warrants when a reference had beenfiled, IHC said that under Section 24(a) read with Section 24(c) of theNational Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, the chairman could issuearrest warrants even after a reference was filed.
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Zardari was arrested last week on Monday by a NAB team after his pre-arrestbail was dismissed by the HIG court. Similarly, Talpur was arrested on June14. Currently, the siblings are in NAB custody on remand. Zardari is in theaccountability watchdog’s custody till June 21. Whereas, his sister is inNAB’s custody till June 24.
