The Accountability Court hearing multibillion rupees fake bank accounts case on Thursday allowed transit remand of Faryal Talpur, sister of former president Asif Ali Zardari, till July 20. Investigation Officer Muhammad Ali Abro informed Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir that speaker provincial assembly Sindh has issued production order for Talpur; therefore, the accused will be transferred to Karachi to attend the assembly session. He requested the court to grant her transit remand.
The court inquired where the accused is. "How can transit remand of the accused be approved without producing her before the court?" the judge questioned. Later, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials produced Talpur before the court and it approved her transit remand till July 20 to attend the assembly session.
It is pertinent to mention here that on the last hearing, NAB Prosecutor Usman Mirza had told the court that during previous two remands, which lasted from June 15 to July 7, Investigation Officer Muhammad Ali Abro got the opportunity to investigate the accused only once as she being a member of Sindh Assembly had gone to attend the assembly session following the issuance of her production orders by the speaker. Separately, the NAB officials produced another accused Sajjad Abbasi before the court on expiry of his physical remand. The NAB official requested the court to grant 14-day physical remand of the accused for completing the investigations.
The defence counsel while objecting to the NAB's request prayed the court to reject the same. The court after hearing the arguments of both defence and prosecution lawyers extended the physical remand of the accused for another seven days and asked the NAB to produce Abbasi before the court on July 18.
The anti-graft body also produced accused Khawaja Mustafa Zulqarnain, Khawaja Suliman Younis and Malik Waheed Ahmed on expiry of term of their physical remands.