Life after immunity: Corruption references opened against Zardari

Ex-president’s counsel assures court he will appear at the hearing.

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court on Tuesday decided to indict former president Asif Ali Zardari on December 9 in four graft references out of five pending against him in court.

While hearing the corruption reference, accountability judge Mohammad Bashir has decided to indict the former president according to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance 1999 references in the polo ground, SGS, ARY and Ursus tractors cases. The court also issued a fresh notice to Zardari to appear in court.

Zardari’s counsel, Farooq H Naek, informed the court that his client had not appeared due to security reasons. However, he assured the judge that the former president will be present on the next date of hearing. The court granted Naek’s request to exempt Zardari from appearing on Tuesday.

On October 11 this year, the court had reopened five references against Zardari and had summoned him for the first time on October 14.

Additional Deputy Prosecutor General Chaudhry Riaz informed the court that the former president had left the country and NAB could not comply with the order. He said that Zardari should appear in court as he no longer enjoys immunity. The court directed NAB to provide copies of the reference to Zardari’s counsel and adjourned the matter till December 9.

Polo ground

One pending reference surrounds the illegal construction of the polo ground and other ancillary works at the Prime Minister House, which are in violation of rules and procedure.  In this case, the court had acquitted Saeed Mehdi, while the case against Shafi Sehwani, the former chairman of Capital Development Authority, was withdrawn following his death.

SGS

In July 2011, pronouncing its verdict in the 13-year-old graft case commonly known as the SGS reference, an accountability court absolved all the accused, except Zardari.

In the SGS reference filed in 1997, it was alleged that then prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her spouse had received kickbacks in a pre-shipment contract between the government and SGS.

ARY case

Grant of licences to ARY Traders for import of gold and silver caused losses to the public exchequer, amounting to approximately Rs18.2 million.

Ursus tractors deal

Another reference, which pertains to Ursus tractors deal, deals with alleged misappropriation in the purchase of 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors at a cost of Rs150,000 each, for the then Awami Tractor Scheme.

The court had earlier had acquitted the co-accused Nawab Yousuf Talpur and AH Kango in the case. The Ursus tractors purchase deal allegedly caused a loss of Rs268.3 million to the ADBP and Rs1.67 billion to the State Bank.

Cotecna

This case involved an allegedly corrupt award for a contract for supervising pre-shipment at the Karachi port.

The contract was awarded to the Swiss company Cotecna in exchange for a bribe during former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s second term. Benazir Bhutto and her husband were accused of taking a 6% bribe on the revenue stream the Swiss company expected on the $131 million contract.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.