NAB cases: Zardari acquitted in Ursus tractors, ARY graft references

Court to announce its decision in SGS and Cotecna references on December 17

ISLAMABAD:

An accountability court on Friday acquitted former president Asif Ali Zardari in two corruption references, Ursus tractors deal and ARY, filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 17 years ago.

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

Asif Zardari is facing five references filed by NAB 17 years ago, including the Ursus tractors deal, ARY case, Cotecna and SGS cases.

The court has fixed December 17 to announce its decision in SGS and Cotecna reference. In May this year court had acquitted him in polo ground reference.

Earlier, in May the court had reserved its judgment on the acquittal plea of former president Zardari, in five corruption references.

Ursus tractors reference pertained to 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.  Zardari is one of the main accused along with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, however, her name had been deleted from the reference after her death in 2007.

The court had acquitted the co-accused, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, former agriculture minister, who is currently a PPP MNA. 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.

The second reference pertained to alleged grant of licences to ARY Traders for import of gold and silver caused losses to the public exchequer, amounting to approximately Rs18.2 million.

Former president was also the main accused in this case. The court had acquitted co-accused Brig (retd) Aslam Hayat Qureshi, Salman Farooqui, Abdul Rauf, Jan Muhammad and Haji Abdul Razzaq Yaqoob.

Farooq H Naek, the counsel for Zardari in his concluding arguments, had maintained that the cases were pending against his clients for 17 years and not a single witness testified against Zardari.

The counsel had claimed that the record submitted by the prosecution were photocopies and not genuine, and had no legal significance.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.