NewsSeptember 09 , 2017
NAB challenges Asif Zardari's acquittal
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau on Saturday challenged the Accountability Court’s decision which acquitted Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari in assets reference.According to Geo News, the anti-corruption agency has moved an application in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the decision in which it maintained that a bad example has been set by acquitting Asif Zardari.
The NAB said it has 22,000 testified documentary proofs against the PPP leader but the Accountability Court didn’t allow it to produce them as per the draft of NAB’s appeal.
The NAB said it has solid evidence against Asif Zardari. It said the court also ignored important witnesses in the case.
Geo TV reported that the NAB has set up a team to plead its case before the Rawalpindi Bench of the High Court.
NAB’s special prosecutor General Imran Shafiq would spearhead the team.
The Accountability Court last month acquitted PPP Co-Chairman in what was the final corruption reference pending against him. The court acquitted former president as the NAB failed to bring any concrete evidence or witness against Zardari.
In the reference, Zardari and his wife, late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been accused of acquiring assets through illegal means.
The case was based on a reference filed by NAB in 2001 during former president Pervez Musharraf’s era, for allegedly acquiring assets through illegal means in Pakistan and abroad.
The plea for Zardari's acquittal, submitted by his counsel and PPP leader Farooq H Naek, was accepted by Justice Khalid Mehmood Ranjha, who ruled that the reference lacked a legal basis.
The court noted that the NAB reference was not maintainable as the evidence submitted by the graft watchdog was in the form of photostat copies only, which held no legal value.
Courtesy www.thenews.com.pk
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