KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister MPA Faryal Talpur on Saturday challenged in the Sindh High Court the verdict of a Karachi’s banking court that shifted their money laundering case to Rawalpindi accountability court.

Zardari and Talpur are among several people caught up in a fake accounts case that was transferred to an accountability court in Rawalpindi on March 15.

The plea was moved by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking transfer of the case to Rawalpindi which was approved by banking court.  The siblings in their petition argued that shifting the case to Rawalpindi was illegal. They wanted the SHC to declare the verdict unacceptable and invalid. The bail obtained by siblings was rejected after the decision of banking court.

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering through fictitious accounts, including Zardari and Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe.

The former president’s other close aide and Omni Group chairman Anwar Majeed and his son, Abdul Ghani, were arrested by FIA in August.

Over 20 anonymous accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made.

The amount, according to FIA sources, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes