ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking pre-arrest bail in a National Accountability Bureau case involving an apartment in an upscale New York neighbourhood purportedly owned by him.
The Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson submitted the request in response to a notice served on him by the dirty money watchdog inquiring about details of the unit.
The watchdog had issued a notice, along with a questionnaire, to the former president on June 15, seeking details of the apartment in Belaire Condominiums — a high-rise condominium apartment building in Manhattan — located at 524 East 72nd Street.
In the petition, Zardari insisted that the notice is “baseless and the allegations made therein are based on malafide intentions so as to malign” him.
“It is respectfully submitted that the petitioner is not in the ownership of any property in New York including [the] apartment as of the date mentioned in the notice,” the petition read.
The petition further said the agency had issued several call-up notices to the PPP co-chief in different matters “to politically damage his reputation”, and added that all those notices were assailed at different forums including at the high court.
Zardari, it mentioned, was suffering from several ailments and his earlier confinement had made his medical condition worse and said that he was currently under the special care of doctors who were monitoring his health.
The petition nominated NAB chief retired Justice Javed Iqbal, director general and three others as respondents.
