ISLAMBAD: The Nat­ional Accountability Bureau (NAB) has summoned Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for a second time this month in the fake bank accounts and money laundering case.

According to NAB, Mr Bilawal had 25 per cent shares in a private firm, Opal-225, a joint venture of the Zardari Group.

Mr Bilawal’s spokesman Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, in a statement on Friday, confirmed that the PPP chief had received the notice for Dec 24 and alleged that the government was taking revenge from the opposition through NAB.

He said a number of ministers were facing corruption cases, but no one had been summoned by NAB.

“NAB is only targeting the opposition,” the PPP leader said.

PPP leaders have been accused of transferring billions of rupees to Opal-225 via fake bank accounts. The company also took loans of billions of rupees from banks.

The bureau is investigating the fake bank accounts and money laundering case against the PPP leaders and on Dec 9, the bureau had filed eight references in the Accountability Court of Islamabad.

On May 29, NAB had served a 32-point questionnaire to the PPP chairperson during his short appearance in the bureau’s headquarters.

The NAB headquarters had shifted the fake bank accounts and money laundering case from NAB Karachi to NAB Rawalpindi a couple of months ago.

The case involves 172 important personalities, including PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur, former chief minister of Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, Anwar Siyal, Bahria Town founder Malik Riaz and others.

Their names have already been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). However, names of Mr Bhutto-Zardari and incumbent Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah have been removed from the travel ban list on the directives of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court in its judgement had directed NAB to file 16 references against the accused in the Accountability Court of Rawalpindi/Islamabad, not in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2019