ISLAMABAD: Faryal Talpur, a central leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and sister of former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, obtained interim bail from the trial court hearing a case of money-laundering of billions of rupees.
The Special Banking Court (SBC) directed Faryal Talpur to deposit surety bonds of Rs2 millions as he was being granted bail till August 16. The SBC earlier considered the plea of Talpur to grant her interim bail as she feared her arrest by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that has nominated her, Zardari and others as absconders in a charge sheet.
The counsel for Talpur told the court that a bench of the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) Larkana Circuit bench has already approved pre-arrest bail of Talpur in the money-laundering case. Earlier, the FIA had declared Zardari and Talpur absconders among others.
Also facing charges in the case are Zardari’s close aide and Pakistan Stock Exchange Chairman Hussain Lawai. The FIA had on Saturday submitted an interim charge sheet against Lawai and other suspects in the court. The FIA has declared more than 20 people absconders.
Another aide to Zardari, Anwar Majeed, and Majeed’s s son were among those absconders in the money laundering case. Lawai, who is also said to be a close aide to Zardari, and his companion Talha Raza are facing charges of corruption of around Rs35 billion and are already in detention.
Talpur, through her counsel Farooq H Naek, had filed for pre-arrest bail in the SHC Larkana Circuit bench, contending that the FIA registered the case on a political basis and the move to register the case was to prevent them from contesting the elections 2018.
The two-member bench comprising Justice Irshad Ahmed Shah and Justice Rasheed Soomro had considered the argument and accepted pre-arrest bail for six days. In such cases, the accused granted protective bail by the appellate court is made duty-bound by the court to approach the trial court before the expiration of the time.
