LAHORE - A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan hearing the fake bank accounts and money laundering case at the apex court’s registry in Lahore, froze assets of Omni Group.
As the hearing began, Chief Justice Saqib Nisar directed court staff to install a projector to display findings of the JIT report submitted by the team last week.
While presenting the JIT report, Mirza revealed that the money in fake accounts was being used to pay expenses of Bilawal House in Karachi and Lahore – the land for party HQ in Punjab’s capital is owned by Zardari Group.
Zardari Group acquired loans worth Rs53.4 billion out which Rs24 billion was taken from Sindh bank. On the other hand, Omni Group acquired loans from all five of its subsidiaries.
The JIT report found that the Omni Group paid between Rs120 million to Rs145 million in “personal expenses” to Zardari Group. The “personal expenses” covered food, clothes and dog upkeep.
In December 2015, the Federal Investigation Agency began a discreetly investigating certain bank accounts through which multi-billion rupee transactions have been made. According to FIA sources, information regarding the fake accounts came to the fore when an intelligence agency picked up a prominent money changer in an unrelated case.