Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi on Saturday tweeted the property tax bills of a New York apartment allegedly owned by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed a reference with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against Zardari for hiding the property in his nomination papers.
The petition submitted by PTI’s Khurram Sher Zaman and Firdous Shamim Naqvi moved the ECP Sindh to take notice of the matter and disqualify Zardari as the member of the National Assembly.
The provincial election commissioner maintained that only ECP Islamabad could take an action over it.
The property documents tweeted by Zaidi mention address of the apartment as: 524 East 72 street, Apt 37F, NY, NY Manhattan 10021.
Zaidi tagged Zaman in the tweet, and said: “@khurram2004 more info for your petition.”
The PTI minister, earlier on December 20, tweeted the alleged sale deed of the apartment which mentioned the PPP leader as the grantee/buyer.
Meanwhile, a banking court on Friday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur till January 7 in an ongoing money laundering case.
The Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe.
The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed a close aide and Omni Group chairman and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August.
Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to sources.
The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.
