Cleared: Zardari acquitted in polo ground reference

The court, however, rejects acquittal pleas in Cotecna and SGS references.

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court on Wednesday acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in a polo ground reference; however, it rejected his acquittal applications in Cotecna and SGS references.

Accountability judge Muhammad Bashir pronounced the decision and observed that the accused, Zardari – who is also the co-chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – was not proven guilty in the case.

Zardari was accused of getting done illegal construction of a polo ground and other ancillary works at the Prime Minister House when his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was in office as prime minister.

In this case, the court had earlier acquitted former principal secretary to the prime minister Saeed Mehdi, while the case against Shafi Sehwani, a former Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, was withdrawn following his death.

The former president is facing five references – polo ground, Cotecna, Ursus tractors deal, the ARY case and SGS – filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 17 years ago. The court will announce its decision on June 4 over the acquittal applications on Ursus tractors deal and ARY case.

On May 20, the court had reserved its judgment after Zardari’s counsel, Farooq H Naek, concluded his argument. Naek, in his concluding arguments, had maintained that the cases were pending against his clients for 17 years and not a single witness had testified against him.

The attorney had filed five separate applications under section 265-K and requested the court to acquit his client. He had claimed that the record submitted by the prosecution was not genuine, as they were photocopies, which have no legal significance.

In October 2013, the same bench had reopened graft cases against the former president after his presidential immunity expired.

Naek had argued that the references were filed against Zardari during Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s previous tenure under the Ehtasab Act, under which maximum punishment, even in offences of serious nature, was not more than seven years.

He had informed the court that his client had remained in prison for over eight years without any valid reason.

The petitioner’s counsel had argued that the co-accused in all the corruption references have already been acquitted and the prosecution had failed to establish their connection with the crime.

Details of the references

Cotecna reference involved the award for a contract for supervising pre-shipment at a Karachi port to the Swiss company Cotecna in exchange for a bribe during former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s second term.

Bhutto and her husband were accused of taking six per cent of the revenue stream the Swiss company expected on the $131 million contract.

In the SGS reference filed in 1997, it was alleged that Bhutto and her spouse had received kickbacks in a pre-shipment contract between the government and SGS. The court had absolved all the accused except Zardari.

The ARY reference involved grant of licences to ARY Traders for import of gold and silver. These licences had allegedly caused losses to the public exchequer, amounting to approximately Rs18.2 million.

Another reference, which pertains to the Ursus tractors deal, alleged misappropriation in the purchase of 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors for the Awami Tractor Scheme.

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

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2014.