Court summons Zardari in assets reference case

The case was closed in 2007 after former military ruler Pervez Musharraf promulgated the controversial NRO

ISLAMABAD:

Responding to an application of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), an accountability court on Friday reopened a 2001 assets reference case and issued notice to former president and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari.

Rawalpindi’s Accountability Court No 2 judge Raja Ikhlaq Hussain initiated proceedings against Zardari and ordered him to appear before the court in person on April 27.

The assets’ reference case is one of the six cases established by NAB against the former president for his alleged financial corruptions.

These cases – including SGS pre-shipment, ARY Gold, Ursus tractors, Cotecna, assets beyond means, and polo ground references – were closed in 2007 after the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf promulgated the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

The Supreme Court in its judgment on the NRO case in December 2009, ordered revival of the cases. However, by then Zardari had sworn in as the president of the country and had acquired immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution.

Talking to The Express Tribune, NAB senior prosecutor Raja Khurram Ejaz said that on Friday he requested the court to reopen the case, arguing that Zardari’s immunity had ended in September 2013 with the termination of his presidential tenure.

In the assets reference, NAB claimed that Zardari purchased a number of moveable and immoveable properties in Pakistan and abroad in the name of his front men and had deposited the money from kickbacks in different Swiss banks.

The prosecution further alleged that the properties were made during the tenures of his wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Many of the properties were on Zardari’s name, the prosecution claimed.

The name of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was co-accused in the case, was struck down from the reference following her assassination in 2007.

Ejaz said the court can issue non-bailable warrants against Zardari if he fails to appear before the court on the next date of hearing. “Proceedings under Sections 87 (proclamation for persons absconding) and 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the criminal procedure code have already been completed against the former president in the case,” he added.

In 2014, an Islamabad accountability court acquitted former president in three corruption references – the polo ground scam, the ARY graft case and the Ursus tractors’ case – filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) 17 years ago.

The NAB authorities, however, have approached the Islamabad High Court and challenged the accountability court’s verdicts in ARY graft and the Ursus tractors’ cases.

In the polo ground reference, Zardari was facing charges of illegally constructing a polo ground and other ancillary works at the Prime Minister’s House when Benazir Bhutto was in office as prime minister.  In the Ursus tractors’ reference, Zardari was accused of misappropriation in the purchase of 5,900 Russian and Polish tractors.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2015.