Pak anti-graft court extends Zardari's remand till July 2

Former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's remand was extended by 11 days on Friday by an accountability court in the money laundering case.

Zardari, 63, who is Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), will now remain in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till July 2, the Dawn reported.

He was arrested on June 10 by the anti-corruption body after the Islamabad High Court rejected his bail plea in the case.

Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur are two of the main accused in the money laundering scandal which utilised fake bank accounts to channel illegally gained funds out of Pakistan.

A day after his arrest, accountability court judge Mohammad Arshad Malik granted NAB his physical remand and ordered that Zardari be presented before the court again on June 21.

Earlier on Friday, a NAB team produced the former president before Judge Malik and sought a two-week extension in Zardari's remand, the report said.

But the judge extended Zardari's remand by 11 days.

During the hearing, the anti-graft body presented its report in the probe and NAB deputy prosecutor general Muzaffar Khan Abbasi also submitted a report of Zardari's medical check-up, the report said.

When the judge asked Abbasi to share what the agency had uncovered so far, he said during the investigation, Zardari had admitted to having a close relationship with a fugitive named Nasir Abdullah.

However, Zardari did not admit that Abdullah was his frontman, he added.

Zardari's counsel Latif Khosa said: "They (NAB) have not found out anything, they were just making up stories because this entire case is based upon assumptions."