IHC grants bail to former president Zardari

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former president Asif Ali Zardari in the fake bank accounts case on medical grounds.

The former president was asked to submit surety bonds worth Rs 10 million in order to get bail.

Asif Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and others have been arrested in the fake bank accounts case. The suspects were accused of laundering billions through fake bank accounts.

In October 2015, the anti-corruption wing of the Federal Investigation Agency in Karachi received a tip off of suspicious intra-bank transactions from the Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and the United Bank Limited. The profiles of the account holders did not match their earnings/income. FIA authorities suspected that these accounts were being run by the Zardari Group and Omni Group, amongst others.

The case dragged on until June 2018, when the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the fake accounts and directed a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the matter.