ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are summoned to appear before a joint investigation team probing money-laundering allegations against them on the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) directives.
The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money-laundering from fictitious accounts, including the brother-sister duo of Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’s close aide and former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai was arrested earlier this month in connection with the probe.
Zardari and Talpur had failed to appear before the agency despite being summoned on July 11. Talpur had subsequently asked the FIA for more time to submit a response in the case.
The agency, on August 1, had issued notices to both to appear today before a JIT in Islamabad formed to probe the allegations.
Sources informed Geo News on Friday that a team of FIA officials had collected evidence in the Rs35 billion money laundering case, and handed it over to the JIT.
According to the sources, money trail of Rs23 billion out of Rs35 billion had been obtained so far. The JIT investigating the matter would await Zardari and Talpur for questioning at the FIA Headquarters in Islamabad on Saturday (today).
The sources said that the JIT had decided not to register further cases with regard to money laundering until the next hearing of the case by the Supreme Court on August 6.
They added that legal action would be taken against the former president and his sister if they failed to appear before the JIT today.
