FIA finds billionaire butler of Bilawal House
The 7-acre land worth Rs5 billion is named after Abdul Jabbar.
KARACHI (Dunya News) – The Federal Investigation Bureau (FIA) has sought a response from the Land Utilization department, Board of Revenue of the Sindh government on a matter concerning regularisation of 7-acre piece of land named after Abdul Jabbar, purportedly the butler of the Bilawal House in Karachi.
Reportedly, the land, located adjacent to the airport in Karachi, is worth Rs5 billion.
.jpg)
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) investigating into the fake accounts case has unearthed the matter and expressed grave concerns as the plot was allotted violating certain rules of land regularization.
Earlier on January 7, former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur approached the court and got an extension in interim pre-arrest bail till January 23 in the fake accounts and money laundering case.
Moreover, the PPP leader submitted his response on the alleged possession of fake accounts.
His response stated that he had not done anything wrong, and expressed certain reservations regarding the ongoing inquiry against him by concluding that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had not submitted concerned documents and witnesses’ testimony in the case.
Furthermore, the response said that the accusations were entirely based on “political victimisation”.
Besides, the former president pleaded with the court to reject the JIT report while terming it ‘detrimental’ for the sanctity of the court of law.
The plea further stated that the Zardari family reserves the right for defence, and the JIT lacked mandate of recommending the matter to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
It said that Faryal Talpur had already filed assets details with the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR).
The money laundering case against Zardari
On December 24, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), formed on the apex court’s orders to probe into the alleged money-laundering case, presented its 128-page final report to the court which included recommendations for filing 16 NAB references.
The report had mentioned that 29 fake accounts were identified by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which laundered Rs42 billion, however, the team further discovered 11,500 bank accounts of 924 account holders, 59 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and 24,500 Cash Transactions Reports (CTRs).
All of these details were scrutinized, besides the loan profile of 924 individuals.
The report further stated that the fake accounts were opened through the Omni Group, however the accounts had been engaged with direct transactions with the Zardari Group, Bahria Town, Sindh Government departments and certain contractors while the ultimate beneficiary of money laundering was Zardari’s family.
On September 6, the SC had formed a JIT to probe into alleged mega money laundering of Rs42 billion channeled through fake bank accounts in three banks.
Besides the Zardari family, several prominent individuals including former Summit Bank president Hussain Lawai and Omni Group president Anwar Majeed, have been accused in the case.
Property tycoon Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Zain, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were also included in the inquiry.
