KARACHI: A banking court in Karachi rejected the bail pleas of former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai and Taha Raza in a money laundering case of 35 billion PKR.
The court rejected the bail on the grounds that since the investigation is still underway, a bail is not possible.
Hussain Lawai is a close aide of former President Asif Ali Zardari. He was arrested by the FIA earlier this month. Raza has also been arrested in the case.
Zardari and his sister Farayal Talpur are also involved in the case, alongside 30 other individuals.
The FIA inquiry started when the financial monitoring unit of the State Bank of Pakistan generated a ‘suspicious transaction report’ in January this year regarding 10 bank accounts.
Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at a private bank were reportedly opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.
The amount, according to the FIA sources, is black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes. The bank authorities never reported such a huge transactions to the authorities concerned, including the FIA.
