FIA asks SC to form 'high-powered' JIT for Fake Bank Accounts Case

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), on Monday, August 6, 2018, requested the Supreme Court to form a high-power Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the alleged money laundering of Rs 35 billion through fake accounts.

Justice Nisar added that if a high-power JIT were set up, it would have to be formed in a similar way to the one formed in the Nawaz Sharif case, as a “balancing act”.

The court was informed that the amount laundered could possibly exceed Rs 35 billion as over 10,000 suspicious transactions have been discovered during the investigations.

Responding to the defense counsel’s query on whether the top court or the lower court would hear the trial, Chief Justice Nisar said that the trial could be conducted in the Supreme Court as well.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, Summit Bank Senior Vice-President Taha Raza and the former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, are among those being investigated by a seven-member JIT led by FIA Additional Director General Najaf Mirza.

An inquiry has been in process since the year 2015 when the investigation agency was first informed of four suspicious accounts opened. Thereafter, the Financial Monitoring Unit in December 2017 had detailed, in a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR), the detection of a total of 29 accounts involved in suspicious transactions using the names of seven individuals.