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Islamabad:
An anti-corruption courtroom in Pakistan on Monday indicted former President Asif Ali Zardari via video hyperlink in a graft case the place he was accused of influencing authorities to launch loans to entrance corporations.
As Zardari couldn’t seem within the courtroom because of “illness”, the indictment was carried out via video hyperlink, which was the primary such indictment within the judicial historical past of the nation.
The 63-year-old husband of the nation’s first lady Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto appeared earlier than the courtroom via video hyperlink from Bilawal House in Karachi.
Judge Muhammad Azam Khan of the accountability courtroom in Islamabad indicted him and 9 different accused within the Park Lane case.
During the listening to, Zardari maintained that his attorneys are on the Supreme Court and he can’t be indicted within the absence of his attorneys.
However, the courtroom dismissed this and remarked that Zardari can be indicted regardless, and his attorneys would merely be marked absent if they didn’t seem earlier than the courtroom.
The indictment has paved the best way for the right trial to start.
Other outstanding accused within the case embrace the Omni Group chief Anwar Majeed, Sher Ali, Farooq Abdullah, Saleem Faisal and Muhammad Hanif.
All of the accused, together with the previous president and Anwar Majeed, maintained innocence and pleaded not responsible earlier than the courtroom.
According to the indictment, Zardari influenced the related authorities throughout his tenure as president to launch loans to entrance corporations. He was accused of being a director of the Park Lane firm and planning to commit fraud.
The former president allegedly obtained his entrance firm, Parthenon Private Limited, a mortgage of Rs 1.5 billion with ailing intention, and the cash was then transferred for his private use via faux accounts.
The National Accountability Bureau accused the previous president of inflicting the nationwide exchequer a lack of Rs 3.77 billion within the case.
In the 13-page NAB case in opposition to Zardari and different accused, the anti-graft watchdog alleges that the accused created properties underneath faux names via Park Lane Company utilizing Parthenon Private Limited because the entrance firm.
Zardari has stated the allegation was a part of a vilification marketing campaign by Imran Khan-led ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering to malign the Opposition leaders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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