ISLAMABAD: The Accountability Court, on Wednesday, summoned former president Asif Ali Zardari and his close aide in corruption case related to over Rs8.3 billion transactions through fake bank accounts.

Accountability Court-III judge Syed Asghar Ali, while hearing the case, issued notices to Zardari and Mushtaq Ahmed, a former stenographer of President House to appear before it on May 20.

According to the reference, Ahmed opened a joint account with a private housing society.

The account had been used for depositing corruption and money laundering money, the reference said.

It said there was concrete evidence that Zardari had purchased House No F-32, Block 04, Clifton, Karachi, through corruption money.

It says that the stenographer, Ahmed, had made payment for Zardari's Clifton House.

An amount of Rs150 million was paid to one, Ahmad Abdul Bari against House No F-32, Block 04, Clifton, Karachi, which was transferred in the name of accused Zardari, from the account of Ahmed, it says.

According to the NAB, accused Zardari failed to provide any justification for the acceptance of an amount of Rs150 million, which proves that amount received through a complicated, circuitous and devious route by using the convict Zain Malik and his trusted person accused Ahmed, by concealing the origin and trail of money, the same was used to purchase House No F-32, Block 04, Clifton, Karachi.

The NAB reference says that during investigation, it has transpired that accused Ahmed was appointed as a stenographer in President House, who remained there from 2009 till 2013, and in the same period, accused Zardari was the president of Pakistan.

The financial profile of accused Ahmed is also investigated, which shows that accused Ahmed had no such source of income to match with the magnitude of transactions in the above mentioned joint account, it says.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021