Legal setback: Court rejects application of Zardari in two graft references

Judge directs prosecutor to bring forth witnesses next month

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court on Monday rejected the acquittal plea of former president Asif Ali Zardari in graft cases filed against him by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) more than a decade ago.

Rejecting the acquittal application filed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supremo in the SGS and Contecna references, the court directed the anti-graft body to bring forth witnesses in the cases on January 8, 2015.

Zardari, who is also the co-chairperson of the PPP, was implicated in five cases in the 1990s by then government of Nawaz Sharif.  During the course of this year, the same court had given Zardari a clean chit in three corruption cases that date back to his slain wife, Benazir Bhutto’s second term in office as premier.

Having been cleared by the court in the Polo Ground, ARY Gold and Ursus tractor cases, Monday’s rejection comes as a legal blow to the former president who has already served an extended prison term for charges related to corruption.

On Monday, when Justice Muhammad Bashir resumed hearing of the SGC and Cotecna references, Zardari’s counsel Farooq H. Naek contended that the cases against his client were politically motivated, adding that there was no evidence against the former president that could lead to his indictment.

However, countering the defence counsel’s argument, NAB prosecutor Chaudhry Riaz said that there was sufficient evidence to convict the former president in the cases.

Corruption cases against the former president resurfaced shortly after his presidential immunity ended in 2013.  An accountability court reopened five references against Zardari and summoned him a few months after he stepped down as the president.

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 Pakistani government and SGS. The prosecution accused the couple of receiving bribes through offshore bank accounts of Schlegelmilch.

The case against Benazir Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto lapsed following their deaths while six foreigners have been declared proclaimed offenders. In July 2011, the court absolved all accused, except Zardari.

Similarly, the Contecna case alleged that Zardari awarded a contract for supervising pre-shipment at the Karachi port to a Swiss company known as Contecna in exchange for a bribe during his wife’s second term in office.

The couple was accused of taking a six per cent payoff on the revenue stream the Swiss company expected on the $131 million contract.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2014.