National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has arrested three higher officials of Sindh Bank including the Bank President in fake accounts scam. The action was taken by the joint team of Karachi and Rawalpindi offices of the bureau.
President of the bank Tariq Ahsan, Executive Vice President Syed Nadeem Altaf and Ex-President & Current Director Bilal Sheikh will be moved to Islamabad by the bureau after it gets their transit remand from Accountability Court in Karachi.
Former President Bilal Sheikh is accused of granting a loan of 1 billion rupees from Sindh Bank to unnamed companies of Omni Group. The fake account saga in which former President Asif Ali Zardari is also involved was a keenly organized movement to launder money through 29 bank accounts opened in Summit Bank, United Bank and Sindh Bank, and over billions of rupees were moved in fraud accounts. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was formed to search for facts and a report with astonishing facts was then submitted by the JIT. It stated that over 42 billion rupees were laundered by using 11,500 bank accounts of 924 holders. Activities from these accounts also engaged Omni Group, Zardari Group, Bahria Town and certain departments of Sindh Government. The whole arrangement was made to benefit the former President Zardari.
Earlier this year, NAB also took two officials of the bank named Sher Ali and Muhammad Farooq for providing forged documents to the bureau in the said case. Co-Chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Chairman Omni Group Anwar Majeed, his sons Namar Majeed and Zulqarnain Majeed, Hussain Lawai and many others are also under custody under this case. The case was transferred from Karachi to Rawalpindi earlier this year due to the political pressure tactics used by Zardari.