The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday after the Islamabad High Court rejected his bail plea in the money-laundering case.
Police personnel, including female officials, had entered the former president's house after the court decision. All roads leading to the residence were blocked by police.
Later, a five-member NAB team took him into custody from the Zardari House, Islamabad, and shifted him to their office in Rawalpindi.
Zardari is to be a produced before an accountability court tomorrow (Tuesday) and it is expected that a 90-day remand would be sought.
The NAB team also visited the Parliament House and informed Speaker Asad Qaiser about the arrest, as it is necessary to inform the speaker before arresting a lawmaker.
Earlier in the day, the bail pleas of Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur were rejected by a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), thus allowing the NAB to arrest them in the money-laundering and fake accounts case.
The bail request of the two had been extended five times but the court reject the plea to grant a permanent bail, as NAB opposed the request, saying that a total of 28 cases were under investigation and it was necessary to grill the accused.
Both Zardari and Talpur were not present in the courtroom when the verdict was announced.
Interestingly, the warrant issued by the NAB only mentioned Zardari, not his sister. And thus Faryal hasn’t been arrested. The reason behind not arresting her isn’t clear yet.
The case pertains to suspicious transactions worth Rs4.4 billion allegedly carried out through a fictitious bank account. According to the prosecution, the account titled M/s A One International was fake and it received a sum of Rs4.4bn out of which Rs30m was paid to the Zardari Group on two different occasions.
Police personnel, including female officials, had entered the former president's house after the court decision. All roads leading to the residence were blocked by police.
Later, a five-member NAB team took him into custody from the Zardari House, Islamabad, and shifted him to their office in Rawalpindi.
Zardari is to be a produced before an accountability court tomorrow (Tuesday) and it is expected that a 90-day remand would be sought.
The NAB team also visited the Parliament House and informed Speaker Asad Qaiser about the arrest, as it is necessary to inform the speaker before arresting a lawmaker.
Earlier in the day, the bail pleas of Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur were rejected by a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), thus allowing the NAB to arrest them in the money-laundering and fake accounts case.
The bail request of the two had been extended five times but the court reject the plea to grant a permanent bail, as NAB opposed the request, saying that a total of 28 cases were under investigation and it was necessary to grill the accused.
Both Zardari and Talpur were not present in the courtroom when the verdict was announced.
Interestingly, the warrant issued by the NAB only mentioned Zardari, not his sister. And thus Faryal hasn’t been arrested. The reason behind not arresting her isn’t clear yet.
The case pertains to suspicious transactions worth Rs4.4 billion allegedly carried out through a fictitious bank account. According to the prosecution, the account titled M/s A One International was fake and it received a sum of Rs4.4bn out of which Rs30m was paid to the Zardari Group on two different occasions.